Title :
Analysis and performance comparison of medium concentration Si and GaAs/Ge cells
Author :
Krut, D.D. ; Glenn, G.S.
Author_Institution :
Spectrolab Inc., Sylmar, CA, USA
Abstract :
Concentrator silicon and GaAs-Ge solar cells have been fabricated and tested by Spectrolab. In this paper, the present the results of their work as well as the economic analyses demonstrating applicability of each cell type. Si top/bottom contact solar cells can be commercially produced to perform with efficiencies exceeding 20% under concentration around 200X AM1.5. For GaAs/Ge solar cells, consisting of epitaxially grown GaAs layers on Ge substrates, possible production efficiencies can exceed 26%. An economic comparison of the two technologies is also reported
Keywords :
III-V semiconductors; economics; electrical contacts; elemental semiconductors; epitaxial growth; gallium arsenide; germanium; semiconductor device manufacture; semiconductor device testing; semiconductor growth; silicon; solar cells; solar energy concentrators; GaAs-Ge; Ge; Si; applicability; bottom contact; concentrator solar cells; economic analysis; epitaxial growth; fabrication; medium concentration; performance comparison; semiconductor; substrates; testing; top contact; Conductivity; Gallium arsenide; Performance analysis; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaic systems; Power generation economics; Production; Solar power generation; Sun; Testing;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1993., Conference Record of the Twenty Third IEEE
Conference_Location :
Louisville, KY
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-1220-1
DOI :
10.1109/PVSC.1993.346950
