The use of renewable energies, and in particular photovoltaics (PV), is one of the most attractive solutions to overcome the problems caused by conventional energy sources. Whilst much achievements have been made over the last couple of decades to reduce the costs of PV cells, however, their costs are presently still the main obstacle for a world-wide increased utilisation of electric power provided by this clean and renewable technology. Therefore, the need for innovative, competitive manufacturing concepts is compelling.

The project proposed here aims to prepare the back end of an c-Si solar cell by applying a recently established Lithuanian technology for producing single-sided solar cells, based on self-formation. In this technology, the + and - conductors are both at the front end, and two-sided processes simply can copy the process to the back-end. This process is far simpler than the manufacturing process of the current two-sided solar cells. Despite foreseen losses in the bulk of the wafer, the expected cell efficiency - based on theoretical calculations - is a whopping 26% with only 20-25% cost increase, so the €/Wp ratio is expected to be effectively reduced by ~50% compared to commercially available singl-sided c-Si solar cells. Furthermore, a competitive specular reflector will be developed which is optimised for c-Si bifacial solar cells.

The project entails following work.

• c-Si Bifacial Solar Cells will be developed on basis of the ORTO-structure that makes use of both horizontal and vertical planes. The leading principle is self-formation which is largely steered by smart software. Simulation runs will be part of the work. The experimental cells will be tested and validated under laboratory conditions.
• A reflector is to be designed to reflect as much sunlight as possible.

Experimental modules will be manufactured with number of cells, and, incombination with the developed reflector, evaluated in real-world conditions to assess the influence of environmental conditions and to verify its user-friendliness.

Plans will be drawn up to commercially exploit the bifacial solar system developed identifying possible markets, pricing and distribution.