Assessing the Impact of Spectral Irradiance on the Performance of Different Photovoltaic Technologies

Abstract

The performance of photovoltaic (PV) solar cells is influenced by solar irradiance as well as temperature. Particularly, the average photon energy of the solar spectrum is different for low and high light intensity, which influences the photocurrent generation by the PV cells. Even if the irradiance level and the operating temperature remain constant, the efficiency will still depend on the technological parameters of the PV cell, which in turn depends on the used PV material’s absorption quality and the spectral responsivity and cell structure. This study is devoted to the review of different commercially available technologies of PV cells include crystalline silicon (c-Si), polycrystalline silicon (pc-Si), cadmium telluride (CdTe), and copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS). We tried to correlate the spectral response or the photocurrent of different PV cells with the variations of the solar spectrum, environmental conditions, and the material properties and construction of PV cells.

Performance of Screw Horizontal and Bridge Linkage Photovoltaic Array Configurations

“…PV technology is suitable for producing electricity in different countries because of the uniform distribution of solar radiation in the world. Some countries are located in or near the solar belt and have long sunny hours per day, which makes them in an optimum location to take advantage of solar technologies [8]. In recent years, solar power has been considered an excellent alternative due to its availability, carbon-free, and sustainability without any contamination such as conventional fossil fuels [9].…”