Regular Article

Semi-transparent photovoltaic glazing based on electrodeposited CIGS solar cells on patterned molybdenum/glass substrates

¹ Crosslux, 1200 Avenue Olivier Perroy, 13790 Rousset, France
² CNRS, Institut Photovoltaïque Ile de France (IPVF), 30 Route Départementale 128, 91120 Palaiseau, France
³ IM2NP, Avenue Escadrille Normandie Niemen, Case 231, 13397 Marseille Cedex 20, France

^* e-mail: daniel.lincot@chimie-paristech.fr

Received: 25 August 2017
Accepted: 3 December 2017
Published online: 16 March 2018

Abstract

In this paper, a new way of preparing semi-transparent solar cells using Cu(In_1−xGa_x)Se₂ (CIGS) chalcopyrite semiconductors as absorbers for BIPV applications is presented. The key to the elaboration process consists in the co-electrodeposition of Cu-In-Ga mixed oxides on submillimetric hole-patterned molybdenum substrate, followed by thermal reduction to metallic alloys and selenisation. This method has the advantage of being a selective deposition technique where the thin film growth is carried out only on Mo covered areas. Thus, after annealing, the transparency of the sample is always preserved, allowing light to pass through the device. A complete device (5 × 5 cm²) with 535 μm diameter holes and total glass aperture of around 35% shows an open circuit voltage (V_OC) of 400 mV. Locally, the I-V curves reveal a maximum efficiency of 7.7%, V_OC of 460 mV, J_SC of 24 mA.cm⁻² in an area of 0.1 cm² with 35% aperture. This efficiency on the semi-transparent area is equivalent to a record efficiency of 11.9% by taking into account only the effective area.