this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2024
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Spending a billion dollars to bring solar manufacturing back to Australia is 'worth a shot', researchers say (theconversation.com)
submitted 7 months ago by tardigrada@beehaw.org to c/australia@aussie.zone
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If Australia can kickstart a viable solar industry, the country could take better advantage of the talent and research knowhow in Australia to begin building next-generation cells, and unlock other parts of the green economy, write Brett Hallam and Fiacre Rougieux from the UNSW Sydney.

"Cheap and plentiful solar power could make it viable to crack water to make green hydrogen or make green steel and aluminium," they add.

"Many initiatives have to be set in train now to gain the benefits in five or ten years’ time. [...] But in a sun-drenched country, it makes sense to aim for the skies."

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[–] Wanderer@lemm.ee 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Isn't perovskite next generation solar tech?

Australian labs are working on it now. Silicon could end up being a waste of money.

[–] Wiggles@aussie.zone 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Pervoskite still has some challenges to overcome before it can be a primary material in solar modules. One of the major problems being Potential Induced Degradation (PID) which is ironically caused by sun exposure, and leads to decreased power output from the solar cell. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666386422003174

The market is currently looking transitioning from p-type modules to n-type (both crystalline silicon based). P-type was the market leading technology for many years because issues like PID, Light Induced Degradation (LID) and Light and Temperature Induced Degradation (LeTID) were more easily resolved in p-type modules. N-types (also known as TopCon) are taking over now as these issues are being resolved and n-types are capable of reaching higher efficiencies than p-types. The higher power classes of n-types (>= 430W) over p-types (peaked around 415-420W) [these power classes are from modules designed for residential installations so have a surface area of about 1750mm*1100mm] is also enabling people to claim the maximum rebate for installing solar on their residence. This is because there is a rebate maximum that is based on installations up to a total size, and the newly released n-type modules (have only been in the market a little over a year) have a power class (440W) that divides evenly into the max installation size (6.6kW) so people can claim the entire rebate.

It looks like the manufacturers are looking to work towards developing hetero-junction (HJT) solar cells. There are a combination of both silicon and pervoskite, with the intent to be to make the most of both materials properties to improve module efficiency while also keeping PID, LID and LeTID within reasonable levels across the module's lifetime.

Edit: just adding some more citations. I haven't directly quoted from any of the sources, just regurgitated info from my head and added them for further readings. Information above may be subject to some inaccuracy. https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/p-type-and-n-type-solar-cells-excellent-electron-adventure/

https://www.maysunsolar.com/blog-n-type-solar-cell-technology-the-difference-between-topcon-and-hjt/

https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy21osti/78629.pdf

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2019/03/12/lid-and-letid-qa-with-jinkosolar/

Edit 2: grammar/spelling

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