Journal article
Characterization of microspherical semi-transparent solar cells and modules
Polymers for Energy Technology, Polymer Department, Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Technical University of Denmark1
Polymer Department, Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Technical University of Denmark2
Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Technical University of Denmark3
Microspherical solar cells and modules have been fabricated. The spherical nature of these semi-transparent devices allows the microspherical cells to harvest both directly incident and diffuse components of sunlight thereby improving the solar energy conversion efficiency. Indoor and outdoor characterizations of these three dimensional semi-transparent cells and modules are carried out using a Lambertian reflector in order to assess the maximum efficiency of the devices.
In the absence of the reflector the cell efficiency is 13.5% under standard illumination (100mWcm-2, A.M. 1.5, 25oC). However, this is significantly enhanced in the presence of the reflector. Microspherical modules with the reflector are directly compared to similar semi-transparent modules comprised of traditional planar devices, in outdoor tests at low light intensity (2.5-25 mWcm-2) to further demonstrate the benefits of the design particularly at low angle of incident radiation.
Language: | English |
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Year: | 2007 |
Pages: | 711-716 |
ISSN: | 14711257 and 0038092x |
Types: | Journal article |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.solener.2006.10.009 |