Performance enhancement from radiative coupling considering realistic spectral conditions for optimal and sub-optimal bandgap multijunction solar cells

Author

Thomas, Tessamma ; Chan, Ngai Lam Alvin ; Fuhrer, Markus ; Ekins-Daukes, N.J.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Imperial Coll. London, London, UK

fYear

2014

fDate

8-13 June 2014

Firstpage

3409

Lastpage

3413

Abstract

We calculate the practical limit of performance enhancement due to the radiative coupling effect for multi-junction solar cells (MJSCs) under a wide range of atmospheric conditions encountered in potential sites for concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) systems. MJSCs with both optimal and sub-optimal band gap combinations with respect to the AM1.5D spectrum were considered. Under realistic atmospheric conditions the relative enhancement to power due to radiative coupling is found to be less than 1% for current matched triple-junction solar cells, whereas enhancement of up to 21% can be expected for non-current matched quad-junction devices. The energy yield improvement over an annual period is calculated.

Keywords

solar absorber-convertors; solar cells; AM1.5D spectrum; CPV systems; atmospheric conditions; concentrator photovoltaic systems; current matched triple-junction solar cells; energy yield; noncurrent matched quad-junction devices; optimal band gap combinations; performance enhancement; radiative coupling; spectral conditions; suboptimal bandgap multijunction solar cells; Aerosols; Computer architecture; Couplings; Junctions; Photonic band gap; Photovoltaic cells; Radiative recombination; concentrator; multijunction; photovoltaics; radiative coupling; spectral irradiance;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC), 2014 IEEE 40th

Conference_Location

Denver, CO

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2014.6925663

Filename

6925663