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Thermal stability analysis of concentrating single-junction silicon and SiC-based solar cells

A. ROSTAMI1,2,* , H. HEIDARZADEH2, H. BAGHBAN1, M. DOLATYARI1, H. RASOOLI3

Affiliation

  1. School of Engineering-Emerging Technologies, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
  2. Photonics and Nanocrystals Research Lab. (PNRL), Faculty of Electrical and computer Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz 5166614761, Iran
  3. Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch, Tabriz, Iran

Abstract

Concentrating photovoltaic systems have been used to deliver high electrical power in comparison to non-concentrated solar power systems. Concentrator solar cells provide the possibility of obtaining very competitive cost by substitution of high-band gap materials with silicon. Thus, an economic concentration of power incident on the photovoltaic cell is obtained due to higher thermal stability of materials with higher band gap. In this paper we have analyzed the operation characteristics as well as the thermal stability of silicon and SiC-based solar cells under illumination much higher than one sun. We have shown that the light intensity incident on a solar cell alters the solar cell performance parameters, including the short circuit current, the open circuit voltage, the fill factor, and the efficiency of solar cell due to variation in the device temperature. For this reason we have calculated the temperature-dependence of the material band gap to obtain the current density variation at the temperature range of 300o K-1100o K. Then, we have evaluated the temperature dependence of the open circuit and the fill factor, and finally, we have investigated the efficiency and the output power at different temperatures and intensities. It has been concluded that 3C-SiC shows considerable thermal stability for high-intensity, high temperature applications unlike single junction silicon solar cell. The maximum achievable efficiency for silicon-based solar cell decreases from 30% at 300o K to ~1% at 1100o K. 3C-SiC has good thermal stability and at the temperature near 700o K its efficiency surpasses silicon. 6H-SiC as another polytypes of silicon that performs even better at temperatures beyond 1100o K..

Keywords

High temperature solar cell, solar concentration, High intensity, Silicon, SiC.

Submitted at: Dec. 18, 2012
Accepted at: Feb. 20, 2013

Citation

A. ROSTAMI, H. HEIDARZADEH, H. BAGHBAN, M. DOLATYARI, H. RASOOLI, Thermal stability analysis of concentrating single-junction silicon and SiC-based solar cells, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials Vol. 15, Iss. 1-2, pp. 1-3 (2013)