Some thoughts on the efficiency of the conversion of light to work

Conference · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1980 · Proc. Annu. Meet. - Am. Sect. Int. Sol. Energy Soc.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6535171

Bolton, J R ^[1]; Archer, M D

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1. Univ. of Western Ontario, London

The thermodynamic limit on the conversion of light to work is approx. 0.93 for direct and approx. 0.70 for diffuse sunlight. However, the purely thermodynamic approach to the problem does not take into account inherent losses in the transducer. When these losses are taken into account, a detailed balance limit is obtained in which the efficiency drops to approx. 0.29 for AM O and approx. 0.32 for AM 1.2 solar radiation. One of the additional loss factors is the thermal equilibration of the electronically excited state in quantum conversion devices. The main consequence of the detailed balance treatment is that the excited state loses all memory of the nature of the incident radiation and the only factor which will affect the conversion efficiency is the flux of incident photons capable of creating excited state molecules. Hence, two light sources, one direct and the other diffuse, will have the same limiting efficiency of work generation if the rate of production of excited states is the same.

• OSTI ID: 6535171
• Report Number(s): CONF-800604-P2
• Journal Information: Proc. Annu. Meet. - Am. Sect. Int. Sol. Energy Soc.; (United States), Vol. 3.1; Conference: American section of the International Solar Energy Society conference, Phoenix, AZ, USA, 2 Jun 1980
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
ORGANIC SOLAR CELLS
FABRICATION
CHLOROPHYLL
DYES
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
ENERGY GAP
FILMS
PERFORMANCE
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
ZINC OXIDES
CARBOXYLIC ACIDS
CHALCOGENIDES
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
EQUIPMENT
HETEROCYCLIC ACIDS
HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
MATERIALS
ORGANIC ACIDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PHYTOCHROMES
PIGMENTS
PORPHYRINS
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
ZINC COMPOUNDS
140500* - Solar Energy Conversion