Optical simulation of photovoltaic modules with multiple textured interfaces using the matrix-based formalism OPTOS

Abstract

The OPTOS formalism is a matrix-based approach to determine the optical properties of textured optical sheets. It is extended within this work to enable the modelling of systems with an arbitrary number of textured, plane-parallel interfaces. A matrix-based system description is derived that accounts for the optical reflection and transmission interaction between all textured interfaces. Using OPTOS, we calculate reflectance and absorptance of complete photovoltaic module stacks, which consist of encapsulated silicon solar cells featuring textures that operate in different optical regimes. As exemplary systems, solar cells with and without module encapsulation are shown to exhibit a considerable absorptance gain if the random pyramid front side texture is combined with a diffractive rear side grating. A variation of the sunlight's angle of incidence reveals that the grating gain is almost not affected for incoming polar angles up to 60°. Considering as well the good agreement with alternative simulation techniques, OPTOS is demonstrated to be a versatile and efficient method for the optical analysis of photovoltaic modules.

GenPro4 Optical Model for Solar Cell Simulation and Its Application to Multijunction Solar Cells

“…In case the interfaces have a texture that scatters light, extended multilayer methods can be used [11][12][13][14][15][16]. We previously introduced the extended net-radiation method [17,18] and similar methods have been proposed since [19,20]. The extended net-radiation method takes the angular intensity distribution of scattered light for every interface as input.…”

“…In this paper we introduce a new, much improved version of our optical model for solar cell simulation: GENPRO4. The novelty is not so much the use of the extended net-radiation method, which we [17,18] and others [19,20] have presented before, but the addition of fast and flexible interface models for light scattering at textured interfaces. Interfaces with subwavelength random texture are simulated using the scalar scattering model developed by Jäger et al [22,23].…”

Impact of Irradiance Data on the Energy Yield Modeling of Dual-Junction Solar Module Stacks for One-Sun Applications

“…The optical performance of the solar devices considered in this article is modeled with the matrix-based simulation formalism, OPTOS [50], [51]. With this formalism, absorptance, reflectance, and transmittance of the incident light across individual layers of the solar cell can be obtained [52].…”

Self-contained optical enhancement film for printed photovoltaics

“…Once the coherent optics of the solar cell stack and the nanostructure layer are calculated, they can be treated as interfaces [36] with angle dependent reflection, transmission or absorption coefficients. As described in [37,38] the BSDF and the results from SETFOS are then used to calculate the optics of the incoherently coupled system, connected only through transparent thick layers (glass/polymer). From the resulting absorption in the active layer, the current density can be evaluated for various incident angles.…”