Screen printing solar cells

System
System Posts: 2,511 admin
in General Solar Power Topics #1
Has anyone heard of making your own solar cells using the screen printing process? If so how well do they work?



Kevin
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  • mike95490
    mike95490 Solar Expert Posts: 9,583 ✭✭✭✭✭
    #2
    Re: Screen printing solar cells

    Never heard of it, which does not mean it's not possible.

    As an experiment and science fair project - great.

    If you think you will get the device to output usable power for a year or more, forget it. Strictly an experimental thing, unless you have a way to pull a hard vacuum and seal the finished panel. That's why the factory built ones have 25 year warranty's.
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  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,613 admin
    #3
    Re: Screen printing solar cells

    Here is a thread in another forum that has been discussing this for a couple years...

    If the forum is accurate, they use cadmium (very toxic).

    It sounds mostly like there was a Japanese patent and people selling how to do it books for $5-$25 each. Does not sound like anyone has been anywhere near successful.

    In general, any thin film type solar array I have read about has this type of problem:
    The dye solar module is still a prototype. The Fraunhofer researchers have developed it together with industry partners in the ColorSol project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research BMBF.

    One particular challenge posed by the new technology is that the narrow gap between the two glass panes must be hermetically sealed so that no air can get in and destroy the reactive substances inside. The Fraunhofer experts have come up with a special solution to this problem. Instead of using polymeric glue like their competitors, they have decided to work with glass frit. To this end, glass powder is screen-printed onto the panes, and fuses with them at a temperature of around 600 degrees Celcius.

    Fatigue tests under various weather conditions have shown that the solar cells still function properly even after several thousand hours. The long-term stability as such, however, has yet to be officially certified.
    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
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  • System2
    System2 Posts: 6,290 admin
    #4
    Re: Screen printing solar cells

    looks like a dead end to me , thanks for the reply.


    Kevin
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