1 / 1

Design considerations for mechanically stacked solar cells in terrestrial Concentrating PV systems

Design considerations for mechanically stacked solar cells in terrestrial Concentrating PV systems. Ian Mathews 1 , Weiwei Yu 1 , Declan Gordon 2 , Donagh O’Mahony 1 , Nicolas Cordero 1 , Brian Corbett 1 , Alan Morrison 1,2.

bazyli
Download Presentation

Design considerations for mechanically stacked solar cells in terrestrial Concentrating PV systems

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Design considerations for mechanically stacked solar cells in terrestrial Concentrating PV systems Ian Mathews1, Weiwei Yu1, Declan Gordon2, Donagh O’Mahony1, Nicolas Cordero1, Brian Corbett1, Alan Morrison1,2 1Tyndall National Institute UCC, Lee Maltings, Prospect Row, Cork Ireland 2Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland Introduction Mechanical stacking of solar cells has been proposed to overcome the current and lattice matching constraints and difficulties in yield and reliability associated with tunnel junctions in current state of the art III-V/Ge monolithic multi-junction PV structures. The choice of material used for the bottom junction has a large bearing on the performance of these stacks. Here we outline our approach to selecting the optimum bottom cell material for mechanical stackswith GaAs or GaInP/GaAs top cells. We have considered the influence of the choice of bottom cell material on the potential PV power output and thermal management issues. GaAs Top cell • Bandgap optimisation • EtaOpt1 Simulation: • Detailed balance limit of efficiency method • All photons with E>Eg are absorbed • External quantum efficiency = 100% • Radiative recombination is the only loss • Junction behaves according to the 1-diode model • Model 1: GaAs Top cell • Model 2: GaInP/GaAs Top cell • Spectrum: AM1.5d • Temp. = 300 K GaInP/GaAs Top cell Junction temperature Temperature varied from 300 – 400 K Spectrum: AM1.5d Concentration: 500 suns (50 W/cm2) Thermal analysis ASTM G-173-03 AM1.5 Direct Solar Spectrum References [1] G. Letay, A. Bett, EtaOpt – a program for calculating limiting efficiency and optimum bandgap structure for multi-bandgap solar cells and TPV cell, Proc. Of 17th EU-PVSEC Munich (2001) Conclusion The potential power produced by mechanical stacked solar cells incorporating GaAs or GaInP/GaAs top cells is close to optimum when Ge or GaSb bottom cells are used. However by wasting less heat through thermalization the use of a Si bottom cell will result in lower temperature increases across the stack which is highly relevant in concentrated PV systems. The extra cost of using Ge or GaSb rather than Si substrates to produce bottom cells in mechanical stacks needs also to be considered . Acknowledgements This work has been supported by Enterprise Ireland and the European Regional Development Fund.

More Related