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When Yifeng Chen was a young person in Shantou, China, within the early 2000s, he noticed a TV program that amazed him. The present highlighted rooftop photo voltaic panels in Germany, explaining that the panels generated electrical energy to energy the buildings and even earned the homeowners cash by letting them promote further vitality again to the electrical energy firm.
Yifeng Chen
Employer
Trina Photo voltaic
TitleAssistant vp of know-how
Member Grade
Member
Alma Maters Solar Yat-sen College, in Guangzhou, China, and Leibniz College Hannover, in Germany
An incredulous Chen marveled at not solely the know-how but additionally the economics. An influence authority would pay its clients?
It seemed like magic: helpful and beneficial electrical energy extracted from easy daylight. The surprise of all of it has fueled his desires ever since.
In 2013 Chen earned a Ph.D. in photovoltaic sciences and applied sciences, and in the present day he’s assistant vp of know-how at China’s Trina Photo voltaic, a Changzhou-based firm that is without doubt one of the largest PV producers on the planet. He leads the corporate’s R&D group, whose efforts have set greater than two dozen world information for solar energy effectivity and output.
For Chen’s contributions to the science and know-how of photovoltaic vitality conversion, the IEEE member obtained the 2023 IEEE Stuart R. Wenham Younger Skilled Award from the IEEE Electron Gadgets Society.
“I used to be fairly stunned and so grateful” to obtain the Wenham Award, Chen says. “It’s a really high-level recognition, and there are such a lot of deserving specialists from all over the world.”
Trina Photo voltaic’s push for extra environment friendly {hardware}
At present’s business photo voltaic panels sometimes obtain about 20 % effectivity: They’ll flip one-fifth of captured daylight into electrical energy. Chen’s group is making an attempt to make the panels extra environment friendly.
The group is specializing in optimizing photo voltaic cell designs, together with the passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC), which is the business normal for commodity photo voltaic panels.
Invented in 1983, PERCs are used in the present day in practically 90 % of photo voltaic panels available on the market. They incorporate coatings on the back and front to seize daylight extra successfully and to keep away from dropping vitality, each on the surfaces and because the daylight travels via the cell. The coatings, generally known as passivation layers, are constituted of supplies equivalent to silicon nitride, silicon dioxide, and aluminum oxide. The layers preserve negatively charged free electrons and positively charged electron holes aside, stopping them from combining on the floor of the photo voltaic cell and losing vitality.
Chen and his crew have developed a number of methods to spice up the efficiency of PERC panels, hitting a report of 24.5 % effectivity in 2022. One of many applied sciences is a multilayer antireflective coating that helps photo voltaic panels entice extra gentle. In addition they created extraordinarily high quality metallization fingers—slender traces on photo voltaic cells’ surfaces—to gather and transport the electrical present and assist seize extra daylight. And so they developed a sophisticated technique for laying the strips of conductive steel that run throughout the photo voltaic cell, generally known as bus bars.
Consultants predict the utmost effectivity of PERC know-how shall be reached quickly, topping out at about 25 %.
IEEE Member Yifeng Chen shows an i-TOPCon photo voltaic module, which has a manufacturing effectivity of greater than 23 % and an influence output of as much as 720 watts.Trina Photo voltaic
“So the query is: How can we get photo voltaic cells much more environment friendly?” Chen says.
Through the previous few years he and his group have been engaged on tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) know-how. A TOPCon cell makes use of a skinny layer of “tunneling oxide” insulating materials—sometimes silicon dioxide—which is utilized to the photo voltaic cell’s floor. Just like the passivation layers on PERC cells, the tunnel oxide stops free electrons and electron holes from combining and losing vitality.
In 2022 Trina created a TOPCon-type panel with a report 25.5 % effectivity, and two months in the past the corporate introduced it had achieved a report 740.6 watts for a mass-produced TOPCon photo voltaic module. The latter was the twenty sixth report Trina set for solar energy–associated efficiencies and outputs.
To attain that record-breaking efficiency for his or her TOPCon panels, Chen and his crew optimized the corporate’s manufacturing processes together with laser-induced firing, by which a laser heats a part of the photo voltaic cell and creates bonds between the steel contacts and the silicon wafer. The ensuing connections are stronger and higher aligned, enhancing effectivity.
“We’re making an attempt to maintain enhancing issues to entice just a bit bit extra daylight,” Chen says. “Gaining 1 or 2 % extra effectivity is big. These could sound like very tiny will increase, however at scale these small enhancements create a number of worth by way of economics, sustainability, and worth to society.”
Because the effectivity of photo voltaic cells rises and costs drop, Chen says, he expects solar energy to proceed to develop all over the world. China presently leads the world in put in solar energy capability, accounting for about 40 % of world capability. The USA is a distant second, with 12 %, in line with a 2023 Rystad Power report. The report predicts that China’s 500 gigawatts of photo voltaic capability in 2023 is more likely to exceed 1 terawatt by 2026.
“I’m impressed by utilizing science to create one thing helpful for human beings, after which pushed by the pursuit for excellence,” Chen says. “We are able to at all times be taught one thing new to make that change, enhance that piece of know-how, and get simply that little bit higher.”
Skilled by solar-power pioneers
Chen attended Solar Yat-sen College in Guangzhou, China, incomes a bachelor’s diploma in optics sciences and applied sciences in 2008. He stayed on to pursue a Ph.D. in photovoltaics sciences and applied sciences. His analysis was on high-efficiency photo voltaic cells constituted of wafer-based crystalline silicon. His adviser was Hui Shen, a number one PV professor and founding father of the college’s Institute for Photo voltaic Power Techniques. Chen calls him “the primary of three essential figures in my scientific profession.”
In 2011 Chen spent a yr as a Ph.D. scholar at Leibniz College Hannover, in Germany. There he studied beneath Pietro P. Altermatt, the second influential determine in his profession.
Altermatt—a distinguished silicon solar-cell skilled who would later turn out to be principal scientist at Trina—suggested Chen on his computational strategies for modeling and analyzing the conduct of 2D and 3D photo voltaic cells. The fashions play a key function in designing photo voltaic cells to optimize their output.
“Gaining 1 or 2 % extra effectivity is big. These could sound like very tiny will increase, however at scale, these small enhancements create a number of worth by way of economics, sustainability, and worth to society.”
“Dr. Altermatt modified how I have a look at issues,” Chen says. “In Germany, they actually deal with machine physics.”
After finishing his Ph.D., Chen grew to become a technical assistant at Trina, the place he met the third extremely influential individual in his profession: Pierre Verlinden, a pioneering photovoltaic researcher who was the corporate’s chief scientist.
At Trina, Chen shortly ascended via R&D roles. He has been the corporate’s assistant vp of know-how since 2023.
IEEE’s “treasure” trove of analysis
Chen joined IEEE as a scholar as a result of he needed to attend the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Convention, the longest-running occasion devoted to photovoltaics, photo voltaic cells, and solar energy.
The membership was significantly helpful throughout his Ph.D. research, he says, as a result of he used the IEEE Xplore Digital Library to entry archival papers.
“My work has actually been impressed by papers I discovered through IEEE,” Chen says. “Plus, you find yourself clicking round and studying different work that isn’t associated to your subject however is so attention-grabbing.
“The publication repository is a treasure. It’s eye-opening to see what’s happening inside and outdoors of your business, with new discoveries taking place on a regular basis.”
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