Abstract
In order to manipulate light in more effective ways than conventional optical materials to convert extra and cheap electrical energy from the sunlight we focused on surface and backside of solar cells. At first this paper concentrate on solar cell performance enhancement by introducing pyramids at the top of the wafer based crystalline silicon solar cells. The optimization of used pyramids as well as their height and width were performed. The efficiency of 24.45 % has been obtained for a cell (thickness of 50 µm) with surface pyramids, while efficiency of 19.53 % has been obtained for flat surface cell. Simulation results show improvement of performance when pyramids are used. Then we will focus on thickness reduction by manipulating the backside of the cell. Reducing the overall cost per watt is thus one of the major goals of this paper. As the thickness of the absorbing region is reduced, however, the absorption significantly decreases at energies close to the electronic bandgap of the semiconductor. This is particularly a problem for thin-film silicon cells. Devices based on crystalline silicon have poor absorption near the bandgap. Light trapping schemes are thus needed to enhance light absorption. In this paper light trapping is achieved using a micron-sized pyramidal surface texture and backside filters that causes scattering of light into the solar cell over a large angular range, thereby enhance the effective light path length. So this paper investigated the use of antireflection coating and back reflectors to improve thin film solar cell performances. Finally, efficiency of upper than 24 % is obtained for 8 µm thin film silicon cell with rear side filter.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
O. Semonin, J.M. Luther, M.C. Beard, Multiple exciton generation in a quantum dot solar cell. SPIE (International Society for Optics and Photonics) Newsroom (2012)
B. Richards, Enhancing the performance of silicon solar cells via the application of passive luminescence conversion layers. Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 90, 2329–2337 (2006)
C. Becker, D. Amkreutz, T. Sontheimer, V. Preidel, D. Lockau, J. Haschke et al., Polycrystalline silicon thin-film solar cells: status and perspectives. Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 119, 112–123 (2013)
S. Kim, J.H. Lee, M.T. Swihart, J.-C. Lee, J.Y. Kim, Silicon nanoparticle size-dependent open circuit voltage in an organic–inorganic hybrid solar cell. Curr. Appl. Phys. 14, 127–131 (2014)
F. Toor, H.M. Branz, M.R. Page, K.M. Jones, H.-C. Yuan, Multi-scale surface texture to improve blue response of nanoporous black silicon solar cells. Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 103501 (2011)
F. Wang, H. Yu, J. Li, S. Wong, X.W. Sun, X. Wang et al., Design guideline of high efficiency crystalline Si thin film solar cell with nanohole array textured surface. J. Appl. Phys. 109, 084306 (2011)
Y. Han, X. Yu, D. Wang, D. Yang, Formation of various pyramidal structures on monocrystalline silicon surface and their influence on the solar cells. J. Nanomaterials 2013, 7 (2013)
I. Malitson, Interspecimen comparison of the refractive index of fused silica. JOSA 55, 1205–1208 (1965)
J. Nelson, The physics of Solar Cells, vol. 57 (World Scientific, 2003)
S.M. Sze, K.K. Ng, Physics of Semiconductor Devices (Wiley, New York, 2006)
H. Heidarzadeh, H. Baghban, H. Rasooli, M. Dolatyari, A. Rostami, A new proposal for Si tandem solar cell: significant efficiency enhancement in 3C–SiC/Si. Optik-Int. J. Light Electron Opt. 125, 1292–1296 (2014)
M.A. Green, Third generation photovoltaics: ultra-high conversion efficiency at low cost. Prog. Photovoltaics Res. Appl. 9, 123–135 (2001)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Heidarzadeh, H., Dolatyari, M., Rostami, G., Rostami, A. (2015). Modeling of Solar Cell Efficiency Improvement Using Pyramid Grating in Single Junction Silicon Solar Cell. In: Oral, A., Bahsi Oral, Z., Ozer, M. (eds) 2nd International Congress on Energy Efficiency and Energy Related Materials (ENEFM2014). Springer Proceedings in Energy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16901-9_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16901-9_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16900-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16901-9
eBook Packages: EnergyEnergy (R0)