Abstract
Spectrum-splitting is a multijunction photovoltaic technology that can effectively improve the conversion efficiency and reduce the cost of photovoltaic systems. Microscale PV design integrates a group of microconcentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems into an array. It retains the benefits of CPVand obtains other benefits such as a compact form, improved heat rejection capacity, and more versatile PV cell interconnect configurations. We describe the design and performance of a two-junction holographic spectrum-splitting micro-CPV system that uses GaAs wide bandgap and silicon narrow bandgap PV cells. The performance of the system is simulated with a nonsequential raytracing model and compared to the performance of the highest efficiency PV cell used in the micro-CPVarray. The results show that the proposed system reaches the conversion efficiency of 31.98% with a quantum concentration ratio of 14.41× on the GaAs cell and 0.75× on the silicon cell when illuminated with the direct AM1.5 spectrum. This system obtains an improvement over the best bandgap PV cell of 20.05%, and has an acceptance angle of 6 deg allowing for tolerant tracking.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 017001 |
Journal | Journal of Photonics for Energy |
Volume | 7 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2017 |
Keywords
- Concentrating photovoltaics
- Holography
- Microscale photovoltaic
- Solar energy
- Spectrum splitting
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
- Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment