Electrically independent subcircuits for a seven-junction spectrum splitting photovoltaic module

Flowers, Cristofer A.; Eisler, Carissa N.; Atwater, Harry A.

doi:10.1109/pvsc.2014.6925165

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This value is consistent with reported spectrum splitting optical efficiencies . Similarly, the 98% efficiency of the DC electrical system serves as a target for power management systems . This approach was used to develop specific implementations of spectrum splitting with practically achievable cells and optics.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 80%

“…The dashed contour showing the minimum concentration required for a module with series‐connected subcells to achieve 50% efficiency shows the advantage conferred by series electrical connection for the subcells. The series‐connected module assumes 90% optical efficiency and no additional electrical losses to account for the easier task of routing and combining power for cells that are already series connected . Despite the disadvantage in spectral efficiency the series‐connected ensembles have higher performance than the corresponding independent ensembles once the losses due to contact resistance are accounted for.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Design of photovoltaics for modules with 50% efficiency

Warmann

Flowers

Lloyd

et al. 2017

Energy Science & Engineering

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A wide variety of photovoltaic cell technologies have shown dramatic performance improvements over the past decade, yet the prospect of a practical module capable of 50% efficiency remains remote. Experimentally achieved singlecell devices have achieved a record efficiency of 28.8% [1], which is close to the theoretical limit of 33.8% for such devices [2]. However, the single-cell limit is far below the fundamental efficiency limit for solar energy conversion of 74.0% for global illumination and 92.8% for direct [2] because a single pn junction can only efficiently convert photons with energy close to the value of its energy bandgap. The best single junction cell will lose more than 40% of the energy in the incident light to transmission of subbandgap photons and thermalization of carriers with photon energy in excess of the bandgap [3]. Spectrum splitting, which divides the solar spectrum into spectral bands of different energy and directs the bands onto multiple subcells with bandgap values matched to the energy of their photon allocation, is a necessary feature of any photovoltaic design capable of achieving >33.8% efficiency. The use of multiple subcells to increase conversion efficiency is well known. In these designs, the subcells are grown monolithically in a stacked configuration and are electrically in series. The incident spectrum is divided among the subcells by sequential absorption, with the top subcells absorbing and converting high energy photons

show abstract

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 80%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%