Wide-angle antireflective nanopillar array solar cell for increasing annual power output

Surface coating with a wide-angle antireflection property is an appealing solution to utilizing sunlight obliquely incident to solar panels. Here we experimentally demonstrate an increased output power of a hybrid nanopillar (NP) array solar cell compared to a pyramidal-textured cell. The conversion efficiency of a hybrid NP array cell (14.1%) is higher than that of a pyramidal-textured cell (12.3%) due to a broadband antireflection property of the hybrid NP array. In addition, the hybrid NP array enables excellent wide-angle antireflection. As a result, the hybrid NP array cell shows high efficiency even for large incident angles compared to a pyramidal-textured cell. By replacing a pyramidal-textured cell by a hybrid NP array cell, the annual power output is estimated to increase by 8.1% for a photovoltaic panel installed in Tokyo. Our results demonstrate that the hybrid NP array is highly promising for increasing the annual power output of photovoltaic power systems.