Effect of Different Minority Carrier Lifetime of Multicrystalline Wafer on Solar Cell Performance

In this article, a study of the effect of different minority carrier lifetime (τ) of wafers on solar cell performance in a conventional industrial production line has been carried out. The results clearly showed that the ultimate efficiency of the solar cells made by wafers of 1μs <τ<1.2μs and 1.2μs <τ<1.5μs is much higher than that of solar cells made by wafers of τ<1μs. The gap of both is about 0.38%–0.53%. Differently, there is no significant difference between wafers of 1μs<τ<1.2μs and 1.2μs <τ<1.5μs. The results obtained are useful when the solar cell companies establish original wafers test standard in industry.