(Al)GaInP/GaAs Tandem Solar Cells for Power Conversion at Elevated Temperature and High Concentration

A multiphysics model of large-scale compact PV–CSP hybrid plants

“…The HT strategy implies radically different operating conditions for the PV cells: we assume that the cell temperature is kept constant and equal to 400 • C. Practically, adjusting the HTF flow rate to the incoming concentrated solar power should allow this condition to be satisfied (it should also be pointed out that the temperature dependence of PV cells has been shown to decrease significantly with sunlight concentration, relaxing the need for a rigorous temperature dependence which accounts for the variations in the operating temperature the PV receiver may be exposed to in reality [34,45]).…”

“…On the one hand, GaAs has been proven to experimentally reach very high conversion efficiencies, currently exceeding 29% under one-sun conditions [33], making this cell technology a good candidate for approaching unity values of ζ S Q under one-sun operation. On the other hand, experimental data regarding the high-temperature operation of GaAs cells remain scarce, and the rare experimental characterizations of comparable cell technologies show ζ S Q values of ∼ 0.35 [34,45]. To explore the impact of the PV cell efficiency on the performance of the hybrid system, we thus select 3 different values of ζ S Q for each strategy considered, corresponding to 3 operational scenarios.…”

Separating the Heat from the Gap

“…4 One approach to actualizing this vision is single-and multi-junction PV topping cycles operated at high concentrations and temperatures where the waste heat is then stored and later utilized in a Rankine bottoming cycle. 5 This approach suffers from competing interests associated with optimizing the thermal and photovoltaic subsystems-increasing cell temperature to boost efficiency of the Rankine cycle decreases the PV cell efficiency and material choices available. Another approach is to utilize a parallel hybrid collector scheme, where the solar spectrum is split into wavelengths best suited for utilization in a PV cell or to be thermalized dependent on the bandgap(s) of the PV material.…”

High Vacuum Flat Plate Photovoltaic-Thermal (PV-T) Collectors: Efficiency Analysis

“…In fact, solar cells and solar arrays [18] are, among other options, the only systems currently capable of providing stable and uninterrupted electrical power [19]. Therefore, both the performance of wide-bandgap materials -such as GaP, SiC, GaN [20], GaAs [21,22] -and of multi-junction solar cells [23,24] have been investigated for use in high-temperature environments. More recent studies have also highlighted the advantages of developing perovskite solar cells for space technology applications [25,26].…”