scholarly journals Solar thermophotovoltaics: reshaping the solar spectrum

Nanophotonics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiguang Zhou ◽  
Enas Sakr ◽  
Yubo Sun ◽  
Peter Bermel
Keyword(s):  
Short Circuit ◽  
Solar Spectrum ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
System Level ◽  
Operation Performance ◽  
Solar Absorption ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Solar Absorbers ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Historic Development

Abstract Recently, there has been increasing interest in utilizing solar thermophotovoltaics (STPV) to convert sunlight into electricity, given their potential to exceed the Shockley-Queisser limit. Encouragingly, there have also been several recent demonstrations of improved system-level efficiency as high as 6.2%. In this work, we review prior work in the field, with particular emphasis on the role of several key principles in their experimental operation, performance, and reliability. In particular, for the problem of designing selective solar absorbers, we consider the trade-off between solar absorption and thermal losses, particularly radiative and convective mechanisms. For the selective thermal emitters, we consider the tradeoff between emission at critical wavelengths and parasitic losses. Then for the thermophotovoltaic (TPV) diodes, we consider the trade-off between increasing the potential short-circuit current, and maintaining a reasonable opencircuit voltage. This treatment parallels the historic development of the field, but also connects early insights with recent developments in adjacent fields.With these various components connecting in multiple ways, a system-level end-to-end modeling approach is necessary for a comprehensive understanding and appropriate improvement of STPV systems. This approach will ultimately allow researchers to design STPV systems capable of exceeding recently demonstrated efficiency values.

scholarly journals Over 30% efficiency bifacial 4-terminal perovskite-heterojunction silicon tandem solar cells with spectral albedo

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sangho Kim ◽  
Thanh Thuy Trinh ◽  
Jinjoo Park ◽  
Duy Phong Pham ◽  
Sunhwa Lee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cell ◽  
Conversion Efficiency ◽  
Crystalline Silicon ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Solar Spectrum ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
Short Circuit Current Density ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
White Sand ◽  
Reflected Light

AbstractWe developed and designed a bifacial four-terminal perovskite (PVK)/crystalline silicon (c-Si) heterojunction (HJ) tandem solar cell configuration albedo reflection in which the c-Si HJ bottom sub-cell absorbs the solar spectrum from both the front and rear sides (reflected light from the background such as green grass, white sand, red brick, roofing shingle, snow, etc.). Using the albedo reflection and the subsequent short-circuit current density, the conversion efficiency of the PVK-filtered c-Si HJ bottom sub-cell was improved regardless of the PVK top sub-cell properties. This approach achieved a conversion efficiency exceeding 30%, which is higher than those of both the top and bottom sub-cells. Notably, this efficiency is also greater than the Schockley–Quiesser limit of the c-Si solar cell (approximately 29.43%). The proposed approach has the potential to lower industrial solar cell production costs in the near future.

Impact of average photon-energy coefficient of solar spectrum on the short circuit current of photovoltaic modules

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 1341-1346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuhei Horio ◽  
Md. Mijanur Rahman ◽  
Yurei Imai ◽  
Yoshihiro Hishikawa ◽  
Takashi Minemoto
Keyword(s):  
Photon Energy ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Solar Spectrum ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
Photovoltaic Modules ◽  
Energy Coefficient ◽  
Average Photon Energy

Suppression of Short-Circuit Current with Embedded Source Resistance in SiC-MOSFET

2018 ◽  
Vol 924 ◽  
pp. 727-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hideyuki Hatta ◽  
Takaaki Tominaga ◽  
Shiro Hino ◽  
Naruhisa Miura ◽  
Shingo Tomohisa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Short Circuit ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Channel Resistance ◽  
Source Resistance ◽  
Short Circuit Currents

This work reports an SiC-MOSFET which replaces a part of the channel resistance with an additional embedded resistance, called a source resistance (Rs). MOSFETs with Rs have higher resistance during short circuit compared with MOSFETs without Rs and suppress short-circuit currents. An improvement of the trade-off relationship between short-circuit capability and on-resistance was obtained with MOSFETs including embedded Rs.

AlGaAs/GaAs Photovoltaic Cells with InGaAs Quantum Dots

2010 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 231-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir M. Lantratov ◽  
Sergey A. Mintairov ◽  
Sergey A. Blokhin ◽  
Nikolay A. Kalyuzhnyy ◽  
Nikolay N. Ledentsov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Dots ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Solar Spectrum ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
Open Circuit ◽  
Bragg Reflector ◽  
Base Layer ◽  
Structural Quality ◽  
Additional Absorption ◽  
Photocurrent Spectroscopy

We studied the different carrier kinetic mechanisms involved into the interband absorption of quantum dots (QDs) by photocurrent spectroscopy. It was shown that in vertically coupled InGaAs QDs an effective carrier emission, collection and separation take place due to minizone formation. The possibility for the incorporation of vertically-coupled QDs into solar cells (SC) without any deterioration of structural quality of the p-i-n-junction has been shown. Due to the additional absorption of solar spectrum in QD media and the subsequent effective separation of photogenerated carriers, an increase (~1%) in short-circuit current density (Jsc) for the QD SC-devices has been demonstrated. However the insertion of QDs into intrinsic region reduced the open circuit voltage (Voc) of such devices. Moving the QD array in the base layer as well as including the Bragg reflector (BR) centered on 920 nm resulted in increase of the Voc. Moreover an improved absorption in the QD media for SC with BR led to further increase of Jsc (~1%). The efficiency for QD SCs at the level of 25% (30 suns AM1.5D) has been demonstrated.

scholarly journals AlxIn1−xN on Si (100) Solar Cells (x = 0–0.56) Deposited by RF Sputtering

Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 2336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sirona Valdueza-Felip ◽  
Rodrigo Blasco ◽  
Javier Olea ◽  
Alba Díaz-Lobo ◽  
Alejandro F. Braña ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Photovoltaic Performance ◽  
Rf Sputtering ◽  
Solar Spectrum ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
Open Circuit ◽  
Electrical Performance ◽  
Al Content

We investigate the photovoltaic performance of solar cells based on n-AlxIn1−xN (x = 0–0.56) on p-Si (100) hetero-junctions deposited by radio frequency sputtering. The AlxIn1−xN layers own an optical bandgap absorption edge tuneable from 1.73 eV to 2.56 eV within the Al content range. This increase of Al content results in more resistive layers (≈10−4–1 Ω·cm) while the residual carrier concentration drops from ~1021 to ~1019 cm−3. As a result, the top n-contact resistance varies from ≈10−1 to 1 MΩ for InN to Al0.56In0.44N-based devices, respectively. Best results are obtained for devices with 28% Al that exhibit a broad external quantum efficiency covering the full solar spectrum with a maximum of 80% at 750 nm, an open-circuit voltage of 0.39 V, a short-circuit current density of 17.1 mA/cm2 and a conversion efficiency of 2.12% under air mass 1.5 global (AM1.5G) illumination (1 sun), rendering them promising for novel low-cost III-nitride on Si photovoltaic devices. For Al contents above 28%, the electrical performance of the structures lessens due to the high top-contact resistivity.

scholarly journals Plasmonic Enhanced InP Nanowire Array Solar Cell through Optoelectronic Modeling

Photonics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 90
Author(s):  
Farzaneh Adibzadeh ◽  
Saeed Olyaee
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Light Absorption ◽  
Metal Layer ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Nanowire Array ◽  
Solar Spectrum ◽  
Normal Incidence ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
Short Circuit Current Density ◽  
Middle Part

Vertical nanowire (NW) arrays are a promising candidate for the next generation of the optoelectronics industry because of their significant features. Here, we investigated the InP NW array solar cells and obtained the optoelectronic properties of the structure. To improve the performance of the NW array solar cells, we placed a metal layer of Au at the bottom of the NWs and considered their top part to be a conical-shaped parabola. Using optical and electrical simulations, it has been shown that the proposed structure improves the absorption of light in normal incidence, especially at wavelengths near the bandgap of InP, where photons are usually not absorbed. Under inclined radiation, light absorption is also improved in the middle part of the solar spectrum. Increased light absorption in the cell led to the generation of more electron–hole pairs, resulting in an increase in short circuit current density from 24.1 mA/cm2 to 27.64 mA/cm2, which is equivalent to 14.69% improvement.

scholarly journals Efficiency limits in photovoltaics: Case of single junction solar cells

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 631-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko Jost ◽  
Marko Topic
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Conversion Efficiency ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Solar Spectrum ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Standard Test ◽  
Open Circuit ◽  
Limiting Efficiency

The conversion efficiency of solar energy into electrical energy is the most important parameter when discussing solar cells, photovoltaic (PV) modules or PV power plants. So far many papers have been written to address the limiting efficiency of solar cells, the theoretical maximum conversion efficiency an ideal solar cell could achieve. However, most of the researches modelled sun?s spectrum as a blackbody which does not represent a realistic case. In this paper we have calculated the limiting efficiency as a function of absorbers band gap at standard test conditions using the solar spectrum AM1.5. In addition, the other key solar cells performance parameters (open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current density and fill factor) are evaluated while the intrinsic losses in the solar cells are also explained and presented in light of a cell temperature.

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