The Influence of Spectral Albedo on Bifacial Solar Cells: A Theoretical and Experimental Study

Journal Article · Wed Nov 01 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2017.2756068· OSTI ID:1825185

Russell, Thomas C. R.; Saive, Rebecca ; Augusto, Andre; Bowden, Stuart G.; Atwater, Harry A.

We have investigated the influence of the spectral albedo on the power output of bifacial solar cells. We adapted the Shockley–Queisser radiative flux balance framework to account for a variation of the spectrum and intensity of the incoming light. We find that the ideal band gap and the maximum efficiency depend on the spectral albedo of the surroundings and that optimal cell performance cannot be assessed when only accounting for a spectrally independent albedo.With a spectral albedo model, we predict that the power output for a bifacial silicon solar cell surrounded by green grass is 3.1% higher than for a wavelength-independent albedo, and even 5.2% higher for white sand. We experimentally verify this trend for silicon heterojunction solar cells and we derive the ideal spectral albedo.

• Research Organization: Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Grant/Contract Number: EEC-1041895; EE0004946
• OSTI ID: 1825185
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1579871; OSTI ID: 1861204
• Journal Information: IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Journal Name: IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics Vol. 7 Journal Issue: 6; ISSN 2156-3381
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
Bifacial solar cells
Shockley–Queisser limit
spectral albedo
thermodynamic efficiency limit