Analysis of tandem solar cell efficiencies under AM1.5G spectrum using a rapid flux calculation method

Bremner, Stephen; Levy, Michael Y.; Honsberg, Christiana B.

doi:10.1002/pip.799

Cited by 273 publications

(211 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…10−12 The challenge with these nanostructures is to maximize light absorption while mitigating electrical loss by removing the undesired local current drains in the device. 13 Meanwhile, these light trapping schemes were mainly applied to single-junction solar cells; for multijunction cells that have been attempted in many forms for improving the solar cell efficiency beyond that of a single-junction solar cell, 14,15 sophisticated studies of the light coupling in subcells are required and even necessary.…”

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confidence: 99%

Nanopyramid Structure for Ultrathin c-Si Tandem Solar Cells

et al. 2014

Nano Lett.

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Recently, ultrathin crystalline silicon solar cells have gained tremendous interest because they are deemed to dramatically reduce material usage. However, the resulting conversion efficiency is still limited by the incomplete light absorption in such ultrathin devices. In this letter, we propose ultrathin a-Si/c-Si tandem solar cells with an efficient light trapping design, where a nanopyramid structure is introduced between the top and bottom cells. The superior light harvesting results in a 48% and 35% remarkable improvement of the short-circuit current density for the top and bottom cells, respectively. Meanwhile, the use of SiO x mixed-phase nanomaterial helps to provide the maximum light trapping without paying the price of reduced electrical performance, and conversion efficiencies of up to 13.3% have been achieved for the ultrathin tandem cell employing only 8 μm of silicon, which is 29% higher than the result obtained for the planar cell.

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confidence: 99%

Nanopyramid Structure for Ultrathin c-Si Tandem Solar Cells

et al. 2014

Nano Lett.

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“…For reference, a plot of the theoretical efficiency of both seriesconnected and unconstrained double tandem cells under the AM1.5G spectrum is plotted in Figure 1. The calculation of these efficiencies follows the work of Martı and Araujo 1 and Brown and Green, 6 but using the most recent AM1.5G spectrum (ASTM G-173-03), which was also used by Bremner et al 5 for similar calculations.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Unconstrained stacks have a slightly higher limiting efficiency under the AM1.5G spectrum than the series-connected cells, but the difference is small with 46.1% versus 45.7%. 5 A drawback of unconstrained stacks is the need for more than two terminals, which increases the complexity of the structure and introduces a clear practical disadvantage since commercially available cables, connections, and inverters for PV-systems are designed for two-terminal systems.…”

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confidence: 99%

Detailed balance analysis of area de-coupled double tandem photovoltaic modules

Strandberg

2015

Applied Physics Letters

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This paper describes how layers of area de-coupled top and bottom cells in photovoltaic tandem modules can increase the efficiency of two-terminal tandem devices. The point of the area de-coupling is to allow the number of top cells to differ from the number of bottom cells. Within each of the layers, the cells can be horizontally series-connected and the layers can then be current- or voltage-matched with each other in a tandem module. Using detailed balance modeling, it is shown that two-terminal tandem modules of this type can achieve the same theoretical efficiency as stacks of independently operated cells, often referred to as four-terminal cells. Optimal ratios of the number of bottom cells to the number of top cells are calculated. Finally, it is shown that modules with a bottom layer consisting of 60 cells with a band gap of 1.11 eV, resembling standard silicon modules, offer sufficient resolution to optimize the number of top cells and achieve high efficiency over a large range of top cell band gaps. This result extends the list of materials that can be used as top cells in two-terminal tandem modules with silicon bottom cells.

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“…Ideally, a top cell with 1.7eV is required to match current produced by c-Si bottom sub-cell, to achieve the maximum efficiency for the combination. 33 Here, a sufficiently thick top sub-cell should absorb all the photons above its bandgap, transmitting the rest of the solar spectrum to the bottom cell. The bottom sub-cell then absorbs above its bandgap from the remaining part of the spectrum (see absorption spectrum in Fig.…”

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confidence: 99%

Bifacial Si heterojunction-perovskite organic-inorganic tandem to produce highly efficient (ηT* ∼ 33%) solar cell

Asadpour

Chavali

Khan

et al. 2015

Applied Physics Letters

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As single junction thin-film technologies, both Si heterojunction (HIT) and Perovskite based solar cells promise high efficiencies at low cost. One expects that a tandem cell design with these cells connected in series will improve the efficiency further. Using a self-consistent numerical modeling of optical and transport characteristics, however, we find that a traditional series connected tandem design suffers from low due to band-gap mismatch and current matching constraints. It requires careful thickness optimization of Perovskite to achieve any noticeable efficiency gain. Specifically, a traditional tandem cell with state-of-the-art HIT () and Perovskite ( ) sub-cells provides only a modest tandem efficiency of 25%. Instead, we demonstrate that a bifacial HIT/Perovskite tandem design decouples the optoelectronic constraints and provides an innovative path for extraordinary efficiencies. In the bifacial configuration, the same state-of the-art sub-cells achieve a normalized output of =33%, exceeding the bifacial HIT performance at practical albedo reflections. Unlike the traditional design, this bifacial design is relatively insensitive to Perovskite thickness variations, which may translate to simpler manufacture and higher yield.

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Analysis of tandem solar cell efficiencies under AM1.5G spectrum using a rapid flux calculation method

Cited by 273 publications

References 17 publications

Nanopyramid Structure for Ultrathin c-Si Tandem Solar Cells

Nanopyramid Structure for Ultrathin c-Si Tandem Solar Cells

Detailed balance analysis of area de-coupled double tandem photovoltaic modules

Bifacial Si heterojunction-perovskite organic-inorganic tandem to produce highly efficient (ηT* ∼ 33%) solar cell

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