Transmissive concentrator multijunction solar cells with over 47% in-band power conversion efficiency

Transmissive concentrator multijunction (TCMJ) solar cells with over 47% in-band power conversion efficiency (PCE) have been designed and realized. These TCMJ solar cells have been characterized under 1 sun and concentrated 500 sun solarspectra, showing that the PCE for in-band light(photon energies above the cell's lowestbandgap) can reach up to 47.6% (29.5% for the full solarspectrum).Temperature coefficients of electrical parameters (Voc, Jsc, fill factor) have been derived frommeasurements within thetemperature range of 20  °C–130 °C, showing linear variations versustemperature change. Opticalmeasurements demonstrate that the cells show 76.5% solar-weighted optical transmission for the out-of-band light(photon energy below the cell's lowestbandgap). This TCMJ solar cell exhibits promisingspectrum splitting capability, which has the potential for use in hybrid photovoltaic-solar thermal applications.

Source: Applied Physics Letters - November 8, 2016 Category: Physics Authors: Qi Xu, Yaping Ji, Dimitri D. Krut, Jim H. Ermer and Matthew D. Escarra Source Type: research