(Al)GaInP/GaAs Tandem Solar Cells for Power Conversion at Elevated Temperature and High Concentration

Perl, Emmett E.; Simon, John; Friedman, Daniel J.; Jain, Nikhil; Sharps, Paul; McPheeters, Claiborne; Sun, Yukun; Lee, Minjoo L.; Steiner, Myles A.

doi:10.1109/JPHOTOV.2017.2783853

Title: (Al)GaInP/GaAs Tandem Solar Cells for Power Conversion at Elevated Temperature and High Concentration

Abstract

We demonstrate dual-junction (Al)GaInP/GaAs solar cells designed for operation at 400 degrees C and 1000x concentration. For the top junction, we compare (Al)GaInP solar cells with room-temperature bandgaps ranging from 1.9 to 2.0 eV. At 400 degrees C, we find that ~1.9 eV GaInP solar cells have a higher open-circuit voltage and a lower sheet resistance than higher bandgap (Al)GaInP solar cells, giving them a clear advantage in a tandem configuration. Dual-junction GaInP/GaAs solar cells are fabricated, and we show temperature-dependent external quantum efficiency, illuminated current-voltage, and concentrator measurements from 25 degrees C to 400 degrees C. We measure a power conversion efficiency of 16.4% +/- 1% at 400 degrees C and 345 suns for the best dual-junction cell, and discuss multiple pathways to improve the performance further. After undergoing a 200 h soak at 400 degrees C, the dual-junction device shows a relative loss in efficiency of only ~1%.

Authors:

^[1];

^[2];

^[2]; Sun, Yukun ^[3]; Lee, Minjoo L. ^[3];

^[1]

National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
SolAero Technologies Corp., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)

Publication Date:: Fri Jan 12 00:00:00 EST 2018

Research Org.:: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)

OSTI Identifier:: 1423195

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5J00-70703
Journal ID: ISSN 2156-3381

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 8; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 2156-3381

Publisher:: IEEE

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 14 SOLAR ENERGY; 71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; III-V and concentrator photovoltaics; PV cells; semiconductor materials; solar energy; high temperature

Citation Formats


                    Perl, Emmett E., Simon, John, Friedman, Daniel J., Jain, Nikhil, Sharps, Paul, McPheeters, Claiborne, Sun, Yukun, Lee, Minjoo L., and Steiner, Myles A. (Al)GaInP/GaAs Tandem Solar Cells for Power Conversion at Elevated Temperature and High Concentration.  United States: N. p., 2018. 
Web.  doi:10.1109/JPHOTOV.2017.2783853.

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                    Perl, Emmett E., Simon, John, Friedman, Daniel J., Jain, Nikhil, Sharps, Paul, McPheeters, Claiborne, Sun, Yukun, Lee, Minjoo L., & Steiner, Myles A. (Al)GaInP/GaAs Tandem Solar Cells for Power Conversion at Elevated Temperature and High Concentration.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2017.2783853

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                    Perl, Emmett E., Simon, John, Friedman, Daniel J., Jain, Nikhil, Sharps, Paul, McPheeters, Claiborne, Sun, Yukun, Lee, Minjoo L., and Steiner, Myles A. Fri .  
"(Al)GaInP/GaAs Tandem Solar Cells for Power Conversion at Elevated Temperature and High Concentration".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2017.2783853.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1423195.

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@article{osti_1423195,

  title        = {(Al)GaInP/GaAs Tandem Solar Cells for Power Conversion at Elevated Temperature and High Concentration},

  author       = {Perl, Emmett E. and Simon, John and Friedman, Daniel J. and Jain, Nikhil and Sharps, Paul and McPheeters, Claiborne and Sun, Yukun and Lee, Minjoo L. and Steiner, Myles A.},

  abstractNote = {We demonstrate dual-junction (Al)GaInP/GaAs solar cells designed for operation at 400 degrees C and 1000x concentration. For the top junction, we compare (Al)GaInP solar cells with room-temperature bandgaps ranging from 1.9 to 2.0 eV. At 400 degrees C, we find that ~1.9 eV GaInP solar cells have a higher open-circuit voltage and a lower sheet resistance than higher bandgap (Al)GaInP solar cells, giving them a clear advantage in a tandem configuration. Dual-junction GaInP/GaAs solar cells are fabricated, and we show temperature-dependent external quantum efficiency, illuminated current-voltage, and concentrator measurements from 25 degrees C to 400 degrees C. We measure a power conversion efficiency of 16.4% +/- 1% at 400 degrees C and 345 suns for the best dual-junction cell, and discuss multiple pathways to improve the performance further. After undergoing a 200 h soak at 400 degrees C, the dual-junction device shows a relative loss in efficiency of only ~1%.},

  doi          = {10.1109/JPHOTOV.2017.2783853},

  journal      = {IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics},

  number       = 2,

  volume       = 8,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Fri Jan 12 00:00:00 EST 2018},

  month        = {Fri Jan 12 00:00:00 EST 2018}

}

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Journal Article:

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https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2017.2783853

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Cited by: 11 works

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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1: Temperature-dependent VOC of (Al)GaInP solar cells of varying aluminum composition, extracted from HIPSS measurements at a photocurrent density of 10A/cm².

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Performance bounds and perspective for hybrid solar photovoltaic/thermal electricity-generation strategies
journal, January 2018

Vossier, A.; Zeitouny, J.; Katz, E. A.
Sustainable Energy & Fuels, Vol. 2, Issue 9
DOI: 10.1039/c8se00046h

Photovoltaic operation in the lower atmosphere and at the surface of Venus
journal, December 2019

Grandidier, Jonathan; Kirk, Alexander P.; Jahelka, Phillip
Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications
DOI: 10.1002/pip.3214

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Title: (Al)GaInP/GaAs Tandem Solar Cells for Power Conversion at Elevated Temperature and High Concentration

Abstract

Citation Formats

Figures / Tables:

Performance bounds and perspective for hybrid solar photovoltaic/thermal electricity-generation strategies journal, January 2018

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journal, January 2018

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journal, December 2019