Modeling of high-efficiency silicon solar cells in realistic operating conditions

TL;DR

This paper develops a self-consistent model for silicon solar cell efficiency considering realistic operating temperatures, showing how cooling mechanisms and surface recombination influence performance under various conditions.

Contribution

A novel self-consistent model that predicts silicon solar cell efficiency by integrating temperature effects, cooling mechanisms, and surface recombination in realistic operating environments.

Findings

Efficiency decrease is less pronounced in cells with lower surface recombination velocity.

Operating temperature remains high even with strong convective cooling.

Efficiency under concentrated illumination is affected by heating and cooling tradeoffs.

Abstract

The selfconsistent model for the temperature dependence of photoconversion efficiency $\eta$ for highly efficient silicon solar cells (SCs) is developed. It is demonstrated that effect of the efficiency decrease due to increasing temperature is less pronounced in the SCs with lower surface recombination velocity, thus offering a possibility to improve the cells' performance. The photoconversion efficiency of the high efficiency silicon solar cells is modeled for the realistic ambient conditions. The SC operating temperature is determined by self-consistently solving the photocurrent, photovoltage, and energy balance equations, considering both radiative and convective cooling mechanisms. The SC temperature is shown to be substantially higher than the ambient temperature even at very high convection coefficients, such as, e.g., 300 $W / (m^2 \cdot K)$, used in our examples. The photoconversion efficiency for this case is substantially below the efficiency of thermally stabilized SC, for which the operating temperature is close to the external temperature. The open-circuit voltage and photoconversion efficiency of the high-quality silicon solar cells under concentrated illumination are also investigated including the tradeoff between SCs heating and cooling processes.