Yield Performance of Standard Multicrystalline, Monocrystalline, and Cast-Mono Modules in Outdoor Conditions

Ismael Guerrero (), Carlos del Cañizo and Yuanjie Yu
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Ismael Guerrero: Instituto de Energia Solar, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Carlos del Cañizo: Instituto de Energia Solar, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Yuanjie Yu: CSI Solar Co., Ltd., Suzhou 215129, China

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 18, 1-13

Abstract: On the journey to reduce the cost of solar modules, several silicon-growing techniques have been explored to grow the wafers the cells are based on. The most utilized ones have been the multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) and the monocrystalline ones, with monocrystalline grown by the Czochralski (Cz) technique being the current winner. Cast-mono (CM-Si) was also largely employed during the last decade, and there are several gigawatts (GWs) of modules on the field, but no data were shared on the performance of those modules. In this study, we put three small installations next to each other in the field consisting of 12 modules each, with the only difference being in the wafers technology employed: mc-Si, CM-Si, and CZ-Si. The first two systems have been manufactured with the same equipment and had their field performance closely monitored for three years, while the CZ-Si one has been monitored for 17 months. The performance data shared show that CM-Si performance on the field is better than mc-Si and is very similar to CZ-Si, with no abnormal degradation. CM-Si requires less energy than CZ-Si to be manufactured, and high efficiencies have been reported; the field performance suggests that it is a very valid technology that deserves further exploration.

Keywords: silicon; cast-mono; multicrystalline; monocrystalline; outdoor performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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