When Yifeng Chen was an adolescent 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 house owners cash by letting them promote further power again to the electrical energy firm.
Yifeng Chen
Employer
Trina Photo voltaic
Title
Assistant vice chairman 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 in addition the economics. An influence authority would pay its clients?
It appeared like magic: helpful and priceless electrical energy extracted from easy daylight. The marvel of all of it has fueled his goals ever since.
In 2013 Chen earned a Ph.D. in photovoltaic sciences and applied sciences, and at present he’s assistant vice chairman of know-how at China’s Trina Solar, a Changzhou-based firm that is likely one of the largest PV producers on the earth. He leads the corporate’s R&D group, whose efforts have set greater than two dozen world data for solar energy effectivity and output.
For Chen’s contributions to the science and know-how of photovoltaic power conversion, the IEEE member obtained the 2023 IEEE Stuart R. Wenham Young Professional Award from the IEEE Electron Devices Society.
“I used to be fairly shocked 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}
Immediately’s business photo voltaic panels sometimes obtain about 20 % effectivity: They will 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 trade commonplace for commodity photo voltaic panels.
Invented in 1983, PERCs are used at present in nearly 90 percent of solar panels on the market. They incorporate coatings on the back and front to seize daylight extra successfully and to keep away from shedding power, each on the surfaces and because the daylight travels by the cell. The coatings, referred to as passivation layers, are made out of supplies corresponding 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 power.
Chen and his group have developed a number of methods to spice up the efficiency of PERC panels, hitting a record of 24.5 percent efficiency in 2022. One of many applied sciences is a multilayer antireflective coating that helps photo voltaic panels lure extra gentle. In addition they created extraordinarily effective metallization fingers—slim strains 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, referred to as bus bars.
Specialists predict the utmost effectivity of PERC know-how will probably 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 will we get photo voltaic cells much more environment friendly?” Chen says.
Throughout 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 power.
In 2022 Trina created a TOPCon-type panel with a record 25.5 percent efficiency, and two months in the past the company announced 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 realize that record-breaking efficiency for his or her TOPCon panels, Chen and his group 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 lure just a bit bit extra daylight,” Chen says. “Gaining 1 or 2 % extra effectivity is large. These could sound like very tiny will increase, however at scale these small enhancements create lots 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 at the moment leads the world in put in solar energy capability, accounting for about 40 % of world capability. The US is a distant second, with 12 %, in keeping with a 2023 Rystad Energy 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 will at all times study 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 Sun Yat-sen University 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 made out 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 Vitality Techniques. Chen calls him “the primary of three essential figures in my scientific profession.”
In 2011 Chen spent a 12 months as a Ph.D. pupil at Leibniz University Hannover, in Germany. There he studied beneath Pietro P. Altermatt, the second influential determine in his profession.
Altermatt—a distinguished silicon solar-cell knowledgeable who would later grow 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 large. These could sound like very tiny will increase, however at scale, these small enhancements create lots 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 gadget 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 rapidly ascended by R&D roles. He has been the corporate’s assistant vice chairman of know-how since 2023.
IEEE’s “treasure” trove of analysis
Chen joined IEEE as a pupil as a result of he wished to attend the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, the longest-running occasion devoted to photovoltaics, photo voltaic cells, and solar energy.
The membership was notably 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 by way of IEEE,” Chen says. “Plus, you find yourself clicking round and studying different work that isn’t associated to your area however is so attention-grabbing.
“The publication repository is a treasure. It’s eye-opening to see what’s occurring inside and outdoors of your trade, with new discoveries occurring on a regular basis.”