The brand new solar panel from Belinus has been manufactured using IBC technology and thus provides an ultra-high efficiency of no less than 21.6%. In addition, the ultra-black design ensures an elegant appearance and status on your roof.
IBC solar cell technology, or Interdigitated Back Contact, is a technology used in making Rear Contact solar cells. With this technology, the solar cells in the panels can achieve a higher efficiency by moving all the front contact grids to the back of the panel. This reduces shading at the front of the cell, which in turn increases efficiency.
It is possible to overcome all shading losses with rear-contact solar cells if both contacts are placed at the rear of the cell. Because the thin-film solar cell at the front is made of high-quality material, it is still possible for the pairs of electron holes to capture the light that is absorbed at the front of the cell at the back. This makes the technology so unique.
The operation of IBC cells is more complicated than, for example, HJT cells (hetero-junction solar cells). This is because the flow of the carriers takes place in two dimensions, whereas with standard cells this is only in one dimension.
In addition, the efficiency of IBC cells is highly dependent on the back surface field lifetime and the front surface recombination. This makes it necessary to use high-quality and long-life silicon wafers in production.
The alignment of the n- and p-areas at the rear of the wafer is also more complicated. As is the manufacturing process, which requires advanced cleaning procedures and contamination checks.
Interdigitated Back Contact cells are one of the most complicated technologies used to produce solar panels. Their operation is therefore different from that of traditional solar cells.
In traditional solar cells, energy conversion is achieved by placing the front contacts inside the cell. This means that to produce electricity, photons reaching the surface of the cell must be absorbed to release electrons. If this does not happen, they are transmitted or reflected, resulting in a loss of efficiency.
In IBC cells, the contacts are placed at the back of the cell which reduces shadowing at the front of the cell and therefore reduces the risk of efficiency loss due to shading. The electrons generated by the absorbed sunlight can still be collected at the back of the cell and converted.
The process of energy conversion is thus put on the back of the panels, as it were, making the IBC technology panels completely black, much more effective than other technology panels, and also more attractive in appearance.
The main advantage of the IBC cells is that the efficiency of the solar panels increases considerably due to the lower shading losses. Because the electrode at the front is so small, a gain of 5% to 7% in generated power can be achieved.
In addition, with both contacts on the back, the cells can be more easily connected and placed closer together in the module because there is no space between them.
Because the contacts at the back occupy a larger surface area, there is a much lower series resistance. This is because the space between the contacts is much smaller compared to other solar cells.
In traditional solar cells, there is a trade-off between series resistance, recombination losses, absorption of light, efficiency and high open-circuit voltages because the energy conversion takes place at the front. In IBC cells, these two functions are independent of each other and the optical optimisation is carried out at the front, which makes the panels much nicer, while the electrical optimisation is at the back.
The main disadvantage of the IBC cells is the considerably more complicated production procedure. The wafers used must have a high lifespan to ensure that the cells can be placed on the back.
Interdigitated Back Contact solar cells were formerly also called Front Surface Field (FSF) cells and were studied as early as the 1970s. The first IBC cells were developed primarily for unmanned aircraft and solar-powered racing cars, and only later for large-scale production of PV systems.
The cells were developed to achieve higher conversion efficiencies for solar energy systems and as a response to the development of the PC, or point contact, cell, which achieved efficiencies of over 20% right from the start in the 1980s.
To summarise the difference between IBC and HJT solar panels, a solar panel produced using HJT has a cheap and simple production process. But it is more energy efficient than solar panels with IBC technology.
Producing HJT solar cells costs less because there are a number of fewer steps in the production process and IBC is simply one of the most difficult ways to produce solar panels.
IBC technology increases the CTM (cell to module) ratio by moving the contacts to the rear and reducing the shadow at the front of the cells. This results in an increased energy conversion efficiency (PCE) of the panel.
Belinus Solar BV was recently named "Top Brand PV 2022" in Belgium in the module category by EUPD Research, a renowned market research company headquartered in Bonn, Germany.
Obtaining the EUPD Research seal of approval is of great significance for the Belgian solar panel company Belinus when it comes to guaranteeing and maintaining high standards, transparency and trust within the industry.
Established in 2015 as a service company for the engineering and quality inspection of solar panels, Belinus is a Belgian technology company with its headquarters in Genk (Belgium) and a renowned presence in more than 10 countries across Europe.
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Belinus specialises in the research, development and production of innovative ultra-efficient ultra-black solar double glazing, home battery and BIPV solutions.
