Bifacial configurations for CdTe solar cells

We present a different back contact for CdTe solar cell by the application of only a transparent conducting oxide (TCO), typically ITO, as a back electrical contact on all-PVD CdTe/CdS photovoltaic devices that acts as a free-Cu stable back contact and at the same time allows to realize bifacial CdTe solar cells, which can be illuminated from either or both sides. Also devices with thin CdTe layers (from ∼2 μm down to 1 μm) have been prepared to improve the conversion efficiency on the back side illumination, which is limited by the collection of carriers far away from the junction and to reduce the amount of material in the CdTe device. Reproducible solar cells exceeding 10% efficiency on the front side illumination and exceeding 3% on the back side illumination are reported.