Can we improve the record efficiency of CdS/CdTe solar cells?

Polycrystalline thin film CdTe continues to be a leading material for the development of cost effective and reliable photovoltaic systems. The two key properties of this material are its near ideal band gap for photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 1.45eV, and its high optical absorption coefficient. Thin film CdTe solar cells are typically hetero-junctions with Us being the n-type partner, or window layer. Efficiencies as high as 16.5% have been achieved. In this paper we make a physical analysis of the typical CdS/CdTe superstrate solar cell, and we show that present record efficiencies are very close to the practical efficiency limit for a CdS/CdTe hetero-junction cell. We show that a current estimate for the maximum efficiency of hetero-junction CdS/CdTe solar cells is around 17.5%, in contrast to old theoretical predictions, which calculate about 30% efficiencies for ideal homo-junction CdTe solar cells. This analysis explains why the record efficiency for this kind of cells has been stable for the last 10 years, going up by less than 1% from 15.8% to only 16.5%. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.