Sliver Cells: The Low cost PV Electricity Alternative

SLIVER cells are thin, single-crystal silicon solar cells fabricated using standard fabrication technology. SLIVER modules, composed of several thousand individual SLIVER cells, can be efficient, low cost, bifacial, transparent, flexible, shadow-tolerant and lightweight. Compared with current conventional PV technology, mature SLIVER Technology will need less than 10% of the pure silicon, and fewer than 5% of the wafer starts per MWp of factory output. There are two distinct challenges for SLIVER technology: devising a robust cell fabrication method for high yield, high efficiency SLIVER cells, suitable for transfer to industry; and handling, electrically interconnecting, and encapsulating billions of SLIVER cells at low cost. We have recently fabricated SLIVER cells with efficiencies exceeding 20% using an optimised process. We believe this is the first commercial thin crystalline-type technology to reach 20% efficiency. We believe there is a path to laboratory cell efficiencies of 22% and commercially-produced cell efficiencies of 21%. A 100 MWp SLIVER factory will produce several billion individual SLIVER cells annually. We have developed a sub-module technology for rapid, reliable, and low-cost assembly of arrays of SLIVER cells to form two main types of conventional solar cell analogues that, because of their appearance, we call “Rafts” and “Sheets”. Using our invention, Rafts and Sheets can be reliably produced at high speed using low-cost equipment and entirely conventional materials, and can be assembled into solar power modules using simple adaptations of conventional solar cell handling and stringing equipment.

Keywords: SLIVER, high-efficiency, cost reduction, silicon fabrication, concentrator cells, manufacturing, processing, partial shading.