Experimental Determination of Power Losses and Heat Generation in Solar Cells for Photovoltaic-Thermal Applications
Solar cell thermal recovery has recently attracted more and more attention as a viable solution to increase photovoltaic efficiency. However, the convenience of the implementation of such a strategy is bound to the precise evaluation of the recoverable thermal power and to a proper definition of the...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer Science and Business Media
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130397 |
| _version_ | 1811072077600391168 |
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| author | Lorenzi, Bruno Acciarri, Maurizio Narducci, Dario |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Lorenzi, Bruno Acciarri, Maurizio Narducci, Dario |
| author_sort | Lorenzi, Bruno |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Solar cell thermal recovery has recently attracted more and more attention as a viable solution to increase photovoltaic efficiency. However, the convenience of the implementation of such a strategy is bound to the precise evaluation of the recoverable thermal power and to a proper definition of the losses occurring within the solar device. In this work, we establish a framework in which all solar cell losses are defined and described. The aim is to determine the components of the thermal fraction. We therefore describe an experimental method to precisely compute these components from the measurement of the external quantum efficiency, the current–voltage characteristics, and the reflectivity of the solar cell. Applying this method to three different types of devices (bulk, thin film, and multi-junction), we could exploit the relationships among losses for the main three generations of PV cells available nowadays. In addition, since the model is explicitly wavelength dependent, we could show how thermal losses in all cells occur over the whole solar spectrum, and not only in the infrared region. This demonstrates that profitable thermal harvesting technologies should enable heat recovery over the whole solar spectral range. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:00:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/130397 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:00:31Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Springer Science and Business Media |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1303972022-09-30T12:48:52Z Experimental Determination of Power Losses and Heat Generation in Solar Cells for Photovoltaic-Thermal Applications Lorenzi, Bruno Acciarri, Maurizio Narducci, Dario Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Solar cell thermal recovery has recently attracted more and more attention as a viable solution to increase photovoltaic efficiency. However, the convenience of the implementation of such a strategy is bound to the precise evaluation of the recoverable thermal power and to a proper definition of the losses occurring within the solar device. In this work, we establish a framework in which all solar cell losses are defined and described. The aim is to determine the components of the thermal fraction. We therefore describe an experimental method to precisely compute these components from the measurement of the external quantum efficiency, the current–voltage characteristics, and the reflectivity of the solar cell. Applying this method to three different types of devices (bulk, thin film, and multi-junction), we could exploit the relationships among losses for the main three generations of PV cells available nowadays. In addition, since the model is explicitly wavelength dependent, we could show how thermal losses in all cells occur over the whole solar spectrum, and not only in the infrared region. This demonstrates that profitable thermal harvesting technologies should enable heat recovery over the whole solar spectral range. 2021-04-06T20:20:26Z 2021-04-06T20:20:26Z 2018-08 2018-07 2020-09-24T21:41:13Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1059-9495 1544-1024 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130397 Lorenzi, Bruno et al. "Experimental Determination of Power Losses and Heat Generation in Solar Cells for Photovoltaic-Thermal Applications." Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance 27, 12 (August 2018): 6291–6298 © 2018 ASM International en https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-018-3604-3 Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. ASM International application/pdf Springer Science and Business Media Springer US |
| spellingShingle | Lorenzi, Bruno Acciarri, Maurizio Narducci, Dario Experimental Determination of Power Losses and Heat Generation in Solar Cells for Photovoltaic-Thermal Applications |
| title | Experimental Determination of Power Losses and Heat Generation in Solar Cells for Photovoltaic-Thermal Applications |
| title_full | Experimental Determination of Power Losses and Heat Generation in Solar Cells for Photovoltaic-Thermal Applications |
| title_fullStr | Experimental Determination of Power Losses and Heat Generation in Solar Cells for Photovoltaic-Thermal Applications |
| title_full_unstemmed | Experimental Determination of Power Losses and Heat Generation in Solar Cells for Photovoltaic-Thermal Applications |
| title_short | Experimental Determination of Power Losses and Heat Generation in Solar Cells for Photovoltaic-Thermal Applications |
| title_sort | experimental determination of power losses and heat generation in solar cells for photovoltaic thermal applications |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130397 |
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