• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.41-47
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• 2024

CIGS solar cells are thin film solar cells that have excellent light absorption coefficient and can be manufactured with high efficiency through the use of low materials. In Korea, they must pass KS certification for home and commercial installation. KS C 8562 is a standard for evaluating the durability of CIGS and thin film amorphous silicon solar modules and deals with contents such as light, temperature, humidity, and mechanical durability. Unlike general crystalline silicon solar modules, the CIGS solar module has a different behavior of output change through these environmental tests, so if it shows 90% or more of the rated output suggested by the manufacturer after the final test, it is judged to be a suitable product. In this paper, the output before and after individual tests was measured through the test method of KS C 8562 to observe the output change and to discover the vulnerabilities of the CIGS solar module when exposed to various environments. Through this, it was confirmed that humidity exposure was the most vulnerable and that it had output recovery characteristics for light (visible light and ultraviolet rays). This study attempted to present the output behavior characteristics and data of the CIGS module at the time when the high efficiency thin film photovoltaic module market is expected to be created in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.47-57
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• 2017

CIGS thin film solar cells are technically suitable for BIPV applications than regularly used crystalline silicon solar cells. Particularly, CIGS PV has lower temperature coefficient than crystalline silicon PV, thus decrease in power generation is lowered in CIGS PV. Moreover, CIGS PV can decrease shading loss when applied to the BIPV system, and the total annual power generation is higher than crystalline silicon. However, there are few studies on the installation factors affecting the performance of BIPV system with CIGS module. In this study, BIPV curtain wall unit with CIGS PV module was designed. To prevent increase of temperature of CIGS PV module by solar radiation, ventilation was considered at the backside of the unit. The thermal specification and electrical performance of CIGS PV of the ventilated unit was analyzed experimentally. Non-ventilated unit was also investigated and compared with ventilated unit. The results showed that the average CIGS temperature of the ventilated curtain wall unit was $6.8^{\circ}C$ lower than non-ventilated type and the efficiency and power generation performance of ventilated CIGS PV on average was, respectively, about 6% and 5.8% higher than the non-ventilated type.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.196-201
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• 2015

This paper presents the impact of partial shading on $CuIn_xGa_{(1-x)}Se_2(CIGS)$ photovoltaic(PV) modules with bypass diodes. When the CIGS PV modules were partially shaded, the modules were under conditions of partial reverse bias. We investigated the characterization of the bypass diode and solar cell properties of the CIGS PV modules when these was partially shaded, comparing the results with those for a crystalline silicon module. In crystalline silicon modules, the bypass diode was operated at a partial shade modules of 1.67 % shading. This protected the crystalline silicon module from hot spot damage. In CIGS thin film modules, on the other hand, the bypass diode was not operated before 20 % shading. This caused damage because of hotspots, which occurred as wormlike defects in the CIGS thin film module. Moreover, the bypass diode adapted to the CIGS thin film module was operated fully at 60% shading, while the CIGS thin film module was not operated under these conditions. It is known that the bypass diode adapted to the CIGS thin film module operated more slowly than that of the crystalline silicon module; this bypass diode also failed to protect the module from damage. This was because of the reverse saturation current of the CIGS thin film, $1.99{\times}10^{-5}A/cm^2$, which was higher than that of crystalline silicon, $8.11{\times}10^{-7}A/cm^2$.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.234-234
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• 2007

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.107-113
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• 2013

In this study, three different types of experimental models of BIPV curtain wall units with GIGS modules were built, and their thermal and electrical performances were analyzed. The experimental results showed that the temperature of the rear side of the GIGS module with the application of an insulation in the curtain wall spandrels was higher than a GIGS module standalone by $22^{\circ}C$, which results in a reduction in the power generation of the former by 8 %. On the other hand, when ventilation was applied to the model to improve the power generation performance, the module temperature was observed to be $142^{\circ}C$ lower compared to the enclosed type, and the power generation performance improved by 5 %. It confirmed that the temperature increase in the rear side of the GIGS module with insulation layer reduced the electrical performance of the module. Based on this, it is claimed that providing sufficient ventilation at the GIGS applied spandrels contribute to improve the power generation of the GIGS module.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.39-46
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• 2014

The performances of three different types of photovoltaic (PV) module technologies namely, copper-indium-diselenide (CIGS), mono-crystalline silicon (mo-Si) and amorphous silicon (a-Si) have been comparatively studied in the grid-connected system for more than a year under the tropical monsoon climate of Thailand. The yields, performance ratios and system efficiencies for the respective PV module technologies have been calculated and a comparison is presented here. The performance ratios of the initial operation year for CIGS showed highest among the compared technologies under Thailand climate conditions by marking 97.0% while 89.6% for a-Si and 81.5% for mo-Si. Although mo-Si has shown highest efficiencies all over the period, under the testing conditions, the operating efficiency of mo-Si was down-graded from its reference value mainly due to high operating temperature and the efficiency of the tested CIGS module was also found as high as that of mo-Si in the study. Accordingly, outdoor assessment shows that CIGS modules have demonstrated high performance in terms of yields and performance ratios in Thailand climate conditions.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.61.1-61.1
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• 2010

$CuIn_{1-x}-GaxSe_2$ based materials with direct bandgap and high absorption coefficient are promising materials for high efficiency hetero-junction solar cells. CIGS champion cell efficiency(19.9%, AM1.5G) is very close to polycrystalline silicon(20.3%, AM1.5G). A reduction in the price of CIGS module is required for competing with well matured silicon technology. Price reduction can be achieved by decreasing the manufacturing cost and by increasing module efficiency. Manufacturing cost is mostly dominated by capital cost. Device properties of CIGS are strongly dependent on doping, defect chemistry and structure which in turn are dependent on growth conditions. The complex chemistry of CIGS is not fully understood to optimize and scale processes. Control of the absorber grain size, structural quality, texture, composition profile in the growth direction is important to achieving reliable device performance. In the present work, CIS nanoparticles were prepared by a simple wet chemical synthesis method and their structural and optical properties were investigated. XRD patterns of as-grown nanopowders indicate CIS(Cubic), $CuSe_2$(orthorhombic) and excess selenium. Further, as-grown and annealed nanopowders were characterized by HRTEM and ICP-OES. Grain growth of the nanopowders was followed as a function of temperature using HT-XRD with overpressure of selenium. It was found that significant grain growth occurred between $300-400^{\circ}C$ accompanied by formation of ${\beta}-Cu_{2-x}Se$ at high temperature($500^{\circ}C$) consistent with Cu-Se phase diagram. The result suggests that grain growth follows VLS mechanism which would be very useful for low temperature, high quality and economic processing of CIGS based solar cells.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.106.1-106.1
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• 2011

The Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) thin film solar cells have been achieved until almost 20% efficiency by NREL. These solar cells include chemically deposited CdS as buffer layer between CIGS absorber layer and ZnO window layer. Although CIGS solar cells with CdS buffer layer show excellent performance, the short wavelength response of CIGS solar cell is limited by narrow CdS band gap of about 2.42 eV. Taking into consideration the environmental aspect, the toxic Cd element should be replaced by a different material. Among Cd-free candidate materials, the CIGS thin film solar cells with ZnS buffer layer seem to be promising with 17.2%(module by showa shell K.K.), 18.6%(small area by NREL). However, ZnS/CIGS solar cells still show lower performance than CdS/CIGS solar cells. There are several reported reasons to reduce the efficiency of ZnS/CIGS solar cells. Nakada reported ZnS thin film had many defects such as stacking faults, pin-holes, so that crytallinity of ZnS thin film is poor, compared to CdS thin film. Additionally, it was known that the hetero-interface between ZnS and CIGS layer made unfavorable band alignment. The unfavorable band alignment hinders electron transport at the heteo-interface. In this study, we focused on growing defect-free ZnS thin film and for favorable band alignment of ZnS/CIGS, bandgap of ZnS and CIGS, valece band structure of ZnS/CIGS were modified. Finally, we verified the photovoltaic properties of ZnS/CIGS solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.421-421
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• 2012

Cu(In,Ga)$Se_2$ (CIGS) 화합물은 직접천이형 반도체로 열적으로 매우 안정하고 에너지밴드갭이 1.04 eV로 이상적인 값에 가깝고, 특히 높은 광흡수계수를 가지기 때문에 박막 태양전지로서 커다란 응용 잠재력을 갖고 있는 광흡수층 재료이다. CIGS 화합물 박막 태양전지의 효율은 연구실에서는 ~20%를 높은 효율을 보고하고 있으며, 모듈급에서도 ~13%의 효율을 보이고 있다. 그러나 CIGS 박막 태양전지를 대면적 또는 양산화에 적용하기 위해서는 20년 이상의 장기적인 수명을 보장할 수 있는 내구성을 갖추어야 한다. 본 연구에서는 CIGS 모듈의 장기적인 신뢰성을 평가하기 위해 CIGS PV 모듈을 대상으로 대표적인 고온 고습 조건인 IEC-61646 규격을 이용하여 $85^{\circ}C$/85% RH에서 1000시간 동안 가속시험이 수행되었고, 고온 환경하에서 모듈의 성능 저하에 미치는 영향을 고찰하기 위해 모듈을 $85^{\circ}C$에서 1000시간 노출시켰다. 두 종류의 가속 스트레스시험 후에 모듈들의 외형적인 노화현상 및 전기적 열화 성능을 분석하였다. 또한 모듈의 효율저하의 원인을 규명하기 위해 모듈 구성 재료 중 충진재료로 사용하는 EVA sheet와 투명전극 AZO를 대상으로 고장분석을 수행하였다. AZO의 미세구조 관찰, 결정상 분석, XPS 분석 및 전기적 분석과 EVA sheet의 FT-IR 분석과 TG-DSC 분석들을 종합하여 CIGS PV 모듈의 성능저하의 원인을 규명하였다.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.102-106
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• 2020

In this paper, the effect of MoSe₂ on the contact resistance (R_C) of the transparent conducting oxide (TCO) and Mo junction in the scribed P2 region of the Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ (CIGS) solar module was analyzed. The CIGS/Mo junction becomes ohmic-contact by MoSe₂, so the formation of the MoSe₂ layer is essential. However, the CIGS solar module has a TCO/MoSe₂/Mo junction in the P2 region due to structural differences from the cell. The contact resistance (R_C) of the P2 region was calculated using the transmission line method, and MoSe₂ was confirmed to increase R_C of the TCO/Mo junction. B doped ZnO (BZO) was used as TCO, and when BZO/MoSe₂ junction was formed, conduction band offset (CBO) of 0.6 eV was generated due to the difference in their electron affinities. It is expected that this CBO acts as a carrier transport barrier that disturbs the flow of current, resulting in increased R_C. In order to reduce the R_C caused by CBO, MoSe₂ must be made thin in a CIGS solar module.