Commercial white paint as back surface reflector for thin-film solar cells

In this work, commercially available white paint is applied as a pigmented diffuse reflector (PDR) on the rear surface of thin-film crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells with a silicon thickness in the 1-2 mu m range. We show that white paint increases the short-circuit current density of the solar cells enormously, with a boost of 41% observed for very thin planar solar cells illuminated with the global AM15 solar spectrum. We also show that white paint is a better back surface reflector (BSR) than aluminium, air, a transparent conductive oxide (TCO)/aluminium stack, and even a detached aluminium mirror. While previous studies have investigated the influence of PDRs on silicon solar cells with thicknesses of over 27 mu m, this work closes the gap that has existed for much thinner cells. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.