Tutorials are a fun and educational tradition of the IEEE-PVSC Annual Conference. These extended sessions will take place the Sunday before the conference live event dates. Tutorials give a deep insight into selected research & development topics and serve both as an expert review of the field for all, as well as an introduction for newcomers. The tutorials are given by some of the most recognized and experienced scientists in the field. All tutorials come with a set of slides which are an indispensable source of information that you will not find anywhere else!
This year attendees can purchase as many tutorials as they wish and participate in two live tutorial sessions; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. All tutorial presentations will be available on-demand for approximately 15 days after the week of live events.
You will also be able to post questions and receive answers from the presenters during the course of the conference. Tutorials may be purchased separately and do not require conference registrations.
Live tutorial sessions will take place on Sunday, June 20, 2021.
AM Tutorials will start at 9am Eastern Time and PM Tutorials will start at 1pm Eastern Time.
Tutorial AM2: PV / Solar Resource Modeling
Tutorial AM3: Utility-Scale PV Plants, Storage & Grid Integration
Tutorial AM4: Perovskite and Organic PV
Tutorial AM5: High-Efficiency and Space-based Devices
Tutorial PM2: PV Materials Characterization
Tutorial PM3: PV Policy and Sustainability
Tutorial PM5: Trends in Chalcogenide Thin Films
Click below to learn more about each tutorial.
Tutorial AM1: Fundamentals of Photovoltaics
Instructor:
N.J.Ekins-Daukes, UNSW Sydney, Australia
Tutorial Description
The tutorial will begin by surveying the properties and availability of sunlight, introducing the necessary measures and some commonly used data sources. A simple thermodynamic model for solar power conversion will be established to place an upper bound to the conversion efficiency. It will then be shown that using a semiconductor absorber leads to the usual measures for solar cell performance, short-circuit current, open circuit voltage and fill factor and introduces additional constraints to photovoltaic power conversion leading to the Shockley-Queisser efficiency limit. The carrier transport and recombination processes that are present in practical solar cells will be discussed in the context of Shockley’s diode equation and establishing analytical models for solar cell dark current, quantum efficiency and reciprocity between absorption and emission, or equivalently absorption and open circuit voltage.
Having established a framework for understanding PV devices, several solar cell technologies will be surveyed (including crystalline silicon, CdTe, CIGS, organic and perovskite) considering both their present laboratory status and manufacturing processes. The application of these modules in PV power systems will be surveyed together with the economic and life-cycle metrics that are commonly used to determine the feasibility and desirability. The tutorial will conclude with a brief perspective on possible future scenarios for PV power generation and technological evolution.
Tutorial AM2: Solar PV Resource Modeling 101: From Sun Position to AC Output
Instructors:
Silvana Ayala Pelaez, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA
Kevin Anderson, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA
Mark Mikofski, DNV, USA
Tutorial Description
Modeling tools for all aspects of photovoltaic systems are rapidly growing, and there are solutions for many of the things you might want to simulate. Python is becoming one of the scientific languages of choice, and many open-source tools are available for PV modeling. This tutorial will focus on teaching attendees PV modeling in python through the use of PVlib.
In this interactive tutorial we will go from getting acquainted with some common data used or measured in pv systems (i.e. weather), to modeling the AC energy output of a single-axis tracker system. This includes learning and simulating sun position, plane of array irradiances, single-diode models, temperature models, and inverter output. We will review common vocabulary around python and data aggregation by hour, week, month, and visualization. The tutorial will finalize with an overview of other available open-source tools for other aspects of modeling PV systems. The tutorial will present hands-on examples in python, enabled via jupyter notebooks and a Jupyterhub (remote hosted server for jupyter notebooks and python language) so attendees don’t have to install anything.
We encourage attendees to participate in the live session, so they can learn how to use and experience the interactive tutorials in person with the instructors.
Tutorial AM3: Utility-Scale PV Plants, Storage and Grid Integration
Instructor:
Mahesh Morjaria, Terabase Energy, USA
Description
This tutorial provides a high-level view of utility-scale PV system design, equipment selection, as well as a discussion of various plant optimization approaches that makes the plant viable. It also includes a discussion of several factors that have made significant PV growth possible. Next insights into practices that are necessary to meet current and future grid integration challenges will be discussed. Finally, the tutorial provides guidance on factors that make the combination of solar and storage more effective in addressing grid challenges arising from increased solar penetration.
Mahesh Morjaria leads an operational technology team, delivering SCADA, controls and related solutions for solar and hybrid plants at Terabase. Previously, he led utility-scale solar R&D and grid integration at First Solar for nearly a decade. He has established himself as an industry-recognized leader in solar generation and in addressing challenges associated with integrating solar into the power grid. He is closely associated with several pioneering efforts demonstrating increased value of solar through reliability services and flexibility. Mahesh previously worked at GE for twenty years where he held various leadership positions including a significant role in wind energy. His academic credits include M.S. & Ph.D. from Cornell University.
Tutorial AM4: Perovskite and Organic PV
Instructor:
Joe Berry, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA
Description
This tutorial focus on state of the art in metal halide perovskite photovoltaics. Current material challenges for metal halide perovskite photovoltaics will be discussed and compared to current issues in challenges in other nascent thin-film technologies (e.g. organic photovoltaics). Considerations of device physics as well as how absorber and contact material choices can make or break the success of these technologies will also be discussed.
Joseph J Berry is a principal scientist in NREL's National Center for Photovoltaics, where he is the team lead of the hybrid perovskite solar cell program. He conducts research on charge transport at the interface in all-inorganic and organic/inorganic interfaces for optoelectronic devices and systems. He researches growth and basic physical properties of transparent conducting oxides for photovoltaic and display technologies, including both single composition and high-throughput combinatorial approaches.
Tutorial AM5: High-Efficiency and Space-Based Devices
Instructor:
Myles Steiner, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA
Description
This tutorial will give a general introduction to the field of multijunction solar cells for the use in terrestrial and space systems. It will start from basic theoretical considerations and explain the benefits of using several pn-junctions to convert the broad solar spectrum into electricity. We will review the III-V alloy system and the various techniques that are available for growing these highly crystalline semiconductors. We will consider different multijunction architectures including designs based on upright and inverted growths, lattice-matched and metamorphic growth, wafer-bonding, and growth of III-Vs on silicon. Some of the specific requirements for the use of multijunctions in different environments will be introduced, such as high current capacity and energy yield for concentrators, radiation hardness for space applications, and low cost for one-sun applications.
Myles Steiner is a senior scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, where he works on III-V multijunction solar cells. He was part of a team that in 2020 demonstrated a record 47.1% six-junction solar cell operated at 143 suns concentration. His recent projects include work on high efficiency architectures for one-sun applications; epitaxial growth on inexpensive substrates; high efficiency thermophotovoltaic cells for energy storage applications; and solar cells for hydrogen production through photoelectrochemical water splitting. Myles got his Ph.D. in Applied Physics at Stanford University in 2006.
Tutorial PM1: Silicon Cell and Module Testing: Best Practice for Silicon R&D and Production
Instructor:
Ronald Sinton, Sinton Instruments, USA
Description
This tutorial will discuss cell and module testing. A particular emphasis will be placed on best practice for testing Silicon devices under industrial conditions, at calibration laboratories, and in R&D. Strategies for minimizing uncertainties will be presented, based on the fundamentals of the equipment and also the device physics behind concepts such as the effects of cell capacitance, illumination non-uniformity, cell mismatch, and the module circuits including bypass diodes. Approaches to data-based assessment of measurement uncertainties will be described. The ambiguities in measuring the “efficiency” of cells with vanishingly little Ag in the busbars is an especially-challenging reality. The use of production IV testing to implement cell-by-cell advanced diagnostics and process control will be described.
Ron Sinton did his PhD work at Stanford University developing 28%-efficient silicon concentrator cells and 23% efficient backside-contact one-sun cells. He then continued this work by adapting the fabrication processes to be more industrial as a founding member of SunPower Corporation. After founding Sinton Instruments in 1992, he focused the company on bringing the systematic device physics approach that was used to develop very high-efficiency silicon solar cells to the design of test and measurement instruments for the broader Silicon field. He was involved in the development of many techniques that are commonly used today, such as the Suns-Voc technique and the methodology for extracting and reporting implied voltage from lifetime data. Sinton Instruments provides metrology for nearly all of the research labs and production facilities working in silicon PV technology. Ron enjoys blurring the boundaries between metrology and device physics in order to report parameters that are key inputs to physical models. He participates in conference program organization, especially the IEEE PVSC (1987-2008) and the annual NREL Silicon Workshop (1994-present). Ron received the Cherry Award at the 2014 IEEE PVSC.
Tutorial PM2: Luminescence-Based Characterization of Photovoltaic Materials and Technologies
Instructor:
Laurent Lombez, French National Centre for Scientific Research, France
Description
This tutorial will present the basics of luminescence (spontaneous emission) with a focus on photoluminescence and electroluminescence signals. The spectral properties of luminescence signals will be detailed and we will explain how can we get optoelectronic properties from those signals. For instance, the reciprocity relations between LED and solar cell will be introduced. The time dependence will also be discussed (ex : TRPL). Finally, we will introduce imaging methods to obtain 2D maps of several optoelectronic properties. Advanced experimental setups and illustrations with different PV technologies will be presented.
Laurent Lombez is a CNRS research scientist. He got his PhD at INSA (Toulouse, France) in 2007 working optical spectroscopy in semiconductor nanostructures. He then moved to the University of Cambridge where he did a 2-years postdoc at the Cavendish Laboratory. From 2009 he worked at IPVF (Palaiseau, France) as a CNRS scientist where he developed multidimensional optical platform (time and spectrally resolved luminescence images) to characterize photovoltaics materials and devices. He also worked on advanced concepts for high efficiency PV. In September 2019 he moved to the LPCNO (Toulouse, France) where he works on optical spectroscopy of 2D materials.
Tutorial PM3: Reaching our Solar-Driven Future: Deployment and Sustainability
Instructor:
Sarah Kurtz, University of California Merced, USA
Description
As momentum grows to decarbonize the world’s energy system, what will this mean for PV? How many TW of PV will we need? If we attempt to reach zero emissions by 2050, how fast will PV need to grow? What supply issues may emerge? What sustainability challenges can we expect? What policy will be needed to get there? When tackling these questions, one must consider how much energy will be needed and what fraction of that will be supplied by PV. Population estimates for 2050 are around 10±1 billion people. The uncertainty in the energy use per person is much higher, affected by the standard of living, energy efficiency (which may be affected by inefficiencies associated with storing energy) and the extent of electrification. The relative use of PV, wind, and other renewables will vary geographically with solar dominating near the equator and wind dominating in places like Denmark and Wyoming. Although historical relative growth rates could easily enable PV to meet the 2050 goals, as PV grows, prediction of the growth rate of all elements of the supply chains will become increasingly important to avoid shortages and oversupplies. A rapid transition of the energy system by 2050 can only happen as a result of strong policy choices; many companies and countries are embracing that challenge. This tutorial will attempt to take a ride into our energy future: hang on for a potentially wild ride!
Sarah Kurtz obtained her PhD in 1985 from Harvard University and now works at the University of California Merced after more than 30 years working at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, in Golden, CO. She is known for her contributions to developing multijunction, GaInP/GaAs solar cells, supporting the Concentrator Photovoltaic (PV) industry, and leading efforts on PV performance and reliability. Her work has been recognized with a jointly received Dan David Prize in 2007, the Cherry Award in 2012, C3E Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, and induction into the National Academy of Engineering in 2020. At the University of California Merced she is working both to help the university grow and to support the Energy Transition through a variety of studies, including a current study on long-duration storage.
Tutorial PM5: Trends in Chalcogenide Thin Films
Instructors:
Mike Scarpulla, The University of Utah, USA
and
B.J. Stanbery, Siva Power, Inc, USA
Description
The promise of thin film photovoltaic technologies has always been to reduce material and production costs while providing high conversion efficiency to achieve competitive cost. More recently their low energy payback time has been recognized as a critical advantage in carbon reduction strategies reliant on TW-scale electrification. CdTe and Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) (as well as perovskites, subject of another tutorial) have in the past decade demonstrated conversion efficiencies in the same >20% range as multicrystalline Si. The fact that these technologies can achieve such high performance is truly remarkable because they consist of heterogeneous stacks of polycrystalline material layers with grain boundaries and interfaces spaced only microns from each other. What special attributes enable such high performance from such structurally imperfect materials? What are the process requirements for their cost-effective production? This tutorial will introduce participants to the leading thin film technologies ranging from the commercially successful to those in research or development stages. We will examine their materials, processing methods, device structures, and how these come together. The outstanding challenges will be discussed for each technology and materials and device concepts on the horizon will be introduced.
Mike Scarpulla has worked in thin film photovoltaics for over a decade and in compound semiconductors for 18 years. He holds a joint appointment as an Associate Professor in the departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Utah. He has served in organizing the PVSC in various roles including chairing Area 2 multiple times. His current photovoltaic research is in group-V doping and the Cl activation process in CdTe as well as electrical defect spectroscopies. He enjoys the nexus of defect physics, materials, crystal growth, processing, device physics, materials and device characterization, and product engineering offered by thin film photovoltaics. His specialties are crystal growth and processing, point defects, and structural and electrical characterization. He is an author on more than 95 peer-reviewed publications and many conference proceedings. Mike earned his Sc.B. from Brown University in 2000 and PhD from UC Berkeley in 2006, both in Materials Science and Engineering. He was a postdoctoral scholar at UC Santa Barbara from 2006-2008 when he joined the University of Utah. In his spare time, he enjoys family, friends and colleagues, hiking, climbing, biking, and skiing.
Billy J. (BJ) Stanbery has worked in industry and academia on a host of PV technologies including Si, OPV, GaAs, and CIGS for over 40 years. He is both an entrepreneur and scientist, working to build bridges between laboratory research and commercialization. He is currently a partner at the consulting firm HelioSourceTech, with his efforts focused on scaling of innovative tools and processes for high-volume, low-cost manufacturing of durable CIGS modules. He’s an ardent proponent of the need for an integrated computational materials engineering approach to accelerating industrial PV product development. Thus his work combines analysis of the device and defect physics of multinary compound semiconductor devices, thermochemistry of film growth and reactor modeling with statistical methods for optimization of processes and customization of tools for CIGS module manufacturing. BJ earned B.S. degrees in both Mathematics and Physics from UT Austin, an M.S. in Physics from UW Seattle, and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from UF Gainesville. He served as General Chair of the 38th IEEE PVSC in Austin and IEEE Vice-Chair of WCPEC-6 in Kyoto.