Radiative cooling for low-bandgap photovoltaics under concentrated sunlight
Abstract
Radiative cooling is a uniquely compact and passive cooling mechanism. Significant applications can be found in energy generation, particularly concentrating photovoltaics (CPV) and thermophotovoltaics (TPV). Both rely on low-bandgap PV cells that experience significant reductions in performance and lifetime when operating at elevated temperatures. This issue creates a significant barrier to widespread adoption. To address this challenge, we demonstrate enhanced radiative cooling for low-bandgap PV cells under concentrated sunlight for the first time. A composite material stack is used as the radiative cooler. Enhanced radiative cooling reduces operating temperatures by 10 °C, translating into a relative increase of 5.7% in open-circuit voltage and an estimated increase of 40% in lifetime at 13 suns. By using a model, we also estimate that the same setup could achieve an improvement of 34% in open-circuit voltage for 35 suns, which could reduce levelized costs of energy up to 33% for high-activation energy failure modes. The radiative cooling enhancement demonstrated here is a simple and straightforward approach, which can be generalized to other optoelectronic systems.
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); National Science Foundation (NSF); US Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research (ONR)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1501749
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1613292
- Grant/Contract Number:
- EE0004946; EEC1454315-CAREER; EEC-1227110; N00014-15-1-2833
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Optics Express
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Optics Express Journal Volume: 27 Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 1094-4087
- Publisher:
- Optical Society of America (OSA)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 14 SOLAR ENERGY; Optics
Citation Formats
Zhou, Zhiguang, Wang, Ze, and Bermel, Peter. Radiative cooling for low-bandgap photovoltaics under concentrated sunlight. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1364/OE.27.00A404.
Zhou, Zhiguang, Wang, Ze, & Bermel, Peter. Radiative cooling for low-bandgap photovoltaics under concentrated sunlight. United States. https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.27.00A404
Zhou, Zhiguang, Wang, Ze, and Bermel, Peter. Tue .
"Radiative cooling for low-bandgap photovoltaics under concentrated sunlight". United States. https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.27.00A404.
@article{osti_1501749,
title = {Radiative cooling for low-bandgap photovoltaics under concentrated sunlight},
author = {Zhou, Zhiguang and Wang, Ze and Bermel, Peter},
abstractNote = {Radiative cooling is a uniquely compact and passive cooling mechanism. Significant applications can be found in energy generation, particularly concentrating photovoltaics (CPV) and thermophotovoltaics (TPV). Both rely on low-bandgap PV cells that experience significant reductions in performance and lifetime when operating at elevated temperatures. This issue creates a significant barrier to widespread adoption. To address this challenge, we demonstrate enhanced radiative cooling for low-bandgap PV cells under concentrated sunlight for the first time. A composite material stack is used as the radiative cooler. Enhanced radiative cooling reduces operating temperatures by 10 °C, translating into a relative increase of 5.7% in open-circuit voltage and an estimated increase of 40% in lifetime at 13 suns. By using a model, we also estimate that the same setup could achieve an improvement of 34% in open-circuit voltage for 35 suns, which could reduce levelized costs of energy up to 33% for high-activation energy failure modes. The radiative cooling enhancement demonstrated here is a simple and straightforward approach, which can be generalized to other optoelectronic systems.},
doi = {10.1364/OE.27.00A404},
journal = {Optics Express},
number = 8,
volume = 27,
place = {United States},
year = {2019},
month = {3}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.27.00A404
https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.27.00A404
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Cited by: 4 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science
Web of Science
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
Radiative sky cooling: fundamental physics, materials, structures, and applications
journal, July 2017
- Sun, Xingshu; Sun, Yubo; Zhou, Zhiguang
- Nanophotonics, Vol. 6, Issue 5
Radiative cooling of solar absorbers using a visibly transparent photonic crystal thermal blackbody
journal, September 2015
- Zhu, Linxiao; Raman, Aaswath P.; Fan, Shanhui
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 112, Issue 40
Optimized cool roofs: Integrating albedo and thermal emittance with R-value
journal, December 2011
- Gentle, A. R.; Aguilar, J. L. C.; Smith, G. B.
- Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol. 95, Issue 12, p. 3207-3215
Is enhanced radiative cooling of solar cell modules worth pursuing?
journal, June 2016
- Gentle, A. R.; Smith, G. B.
- Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol. 150
Passive radiative cooling below ambient air temperature under direct sunlight
journal, November 2014
- Raman, Aaswath P.; Anoma, Marc Abou; Zhu, Linxiao
- Nature, Vol. 515, Issue 7528, p. 540-544
Passive directional sub-ambient daytime radiative cooling
journal, November 2018
- Bhatia, Bikram; Leroy, Arny; Shen, Yichen
- Nature Communications, Vol. 9, Issue 1
Design and global optimization of high-efficiency thermophotovoltaic systems
journal, January 2010
- Bermel, Peter; Ghebrebrhan, Michael; Chan, Walker
- Optics Express, Vol. 18, Issue S3, p. A314-A334
Adsorption-based atmospheric water harvesting device for arid climates
journal, March 2018
- Kim, Hyunho; Rao, Sameer R.; Kapustin, Eugene A.
- Nature Communications, Vol. 9, Issue 1
Materials for radiative cooling to low temperature
journal, November 1984
- Eriksson, T. S.; Lushiku, E. M.; Granqvist, C. G.
- Solar Energy Materials, Vol. 11, Issue 3
A Universal Route to Realize Radiative Cooling and Light Management in Photovoltaic Modules
journal, September 2017
- Lu, Yuehui; Chen, Zhicheng; Ai, Ling
- Solar RRL, Vol. 1, Issue 10
Energy saving and economic analysis of a new hybrid radiative cooling system for single-family houses in the USA
journal, August 2018
- Zhang, Kai; Zhao, Dongliang; Yin, Xiaobo
- Applied Energy, Vol. 224
Optical constants from the far infrared to the x-ray region: Mg, Al, Cu, Ag, Au, Bi, C, and Al_2O_3
journal, January 1975
- Hagemann, H. -J.; Gudat, W.; Kunz, C.
- Journal of the Optical Society of America, Vol. 65, Issue 6
Thermophotovoltaics on the move to applications
journal, May 2013
- Bitnar, Bernd; Durisch, Wilhelm; Holzner, Reto
- Applied Energy, Vol. 105
The Temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background
journal, November 2009
- Fixsen, D. J.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 707, Issue 2
S4 : A free electromagnetic solver for layered periodic structures
journal, October 2012
- Liu, Victor; Fan, Shanhui
- Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 183, Issue 10, p. 2233-2244
Réfrigération radiative. Effet de serre inverse
journal, January 1979
- Grenier, Ph.
- Revue de Physique Appliquée, Vol. 14, Issue 1
Accelerated Testing and Modeling of Potential-Induced Degradation as a Function of Temperature and Relative Humidity
journal, November 2015
- Hacke, Peter; Spataru, Sergiu; Terwilliger, Kent
- IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 5, Issue 6
Radiative cooling to deep sub-freezing temperatures through a 24-h day–night cycle
journal, December 2016
- Chen, Zhen; Zhu, Linxiao; Raman, Aaswath
- Nature Communications, Vol. 7, Issue 1
Scalable-manufactured randomized glass-polymer hybrid metamaterial for daytime radiative cooling
journal, February 2017
- Zhai, Yao; Ma, Yaoguang; David, Sabrina N.
- Science, Vol. 355, Issue 6329
Radiative cooling to low temperatures with selectivity IR-emitting surfaces
journal, April 1982
- Granqvist, C. G.; Hjortsberg, A.; Eriksson, T. S.
- Thin Solid Films, Vol. 90, Issue 2
Degradations of silicon photovoltaic modules: A literature review
journal, October 2013
- Ndiaye, Ababacar; Charki, Abdérafi; Kobi, Abdessamad
- Solar Energy, Vol. 96
Optical properties of soda lime silica glasses
journal, September 1985
- Rubin, M.
- Solar Energy Materials, Vol. 12, Issue 4
Sub-ambient non-evaporative fluid cooling with the sky
journal, September 2017
- Goldstein, Eli A.; Raman, Aaswath P.; Fan, Shanhui
- Nature Energy, Vol. 2, Issue 9
A Comprehensive Photonic Approach for Solar Cell Cooling
journal, March 2017
- Li, Wei; Shi, Yu; Chen, Kaifeng
- ACS Photonics, Vol. 4, Issue 4
Optics-Based Approach to Thermal Management of Photovoltaics: Selective-Spectral and Radiative Cooling
journal, March 2017
- Sun, Xingshu; Silverman, Timothy J.; Zhou, Zhiguang
- IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 7, Issue 2
A Subambient Open Roof Surface under the Mid-Summer Sun
journal, May 2015
- Gentle, Angus R.; Smith, Geoff B.
- Advanced Science, Vol. 2, Issue 9
Radiative cooling to low temperatures: General considerations and application to selectively emitting SiO films
journal, June 1981
- Granqvist, C. G.; Hjortsberg, A.
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 52, Issue 6, p. 4205-4220
Ultrabroadband Photonic Structures To Achieve High-Performance Daytime Radiative Cooling
journal, March 2013
- Rephaeli, Eden; Raman, Aaswath; Fan, Shanhui
- Nano Letters, Vol. 13, Issue 4, p. 1457-1461
Radiative cooling of solar cells
journal, January 2014
- Zhu, Linxiao; Raman, Aaswath; Wang, Ken Xingze
- Optica, Vol. 1, Issue 1
Angle-Selective Reflective Filters for Exclusion of Background Thermal Emission
journal, April 2017
- Sakr, Enas; Bermel, Peter
- Physical Review Applied, Vol. 7, Issue 4
Harvesting renewable energy from Earth's mid-infrared emissions
journal, March 2014
- Byrnes, S. J.; Blanchard, R.; Capasso, F.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 111, Issue 11
Daytime Radiative Cooling Using Near-Black Infrared Emitters
journal, February 2017
- Kou, Jun-long; Jurado, Zoila; Chen, Zhen
- ACS Photonics, Vol. 4, Issue 3
Radiative cooling for thermophotovoltaic systems
conference, September 2016
- Zhou, Zhiguang; Sun, Xingshu; Bermel, Peter
- SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, SPIE Proceedings
Color-preserving daytime radiative cooling
journal, November 2013
- Zhu, Linxiao; Raman, Aaswath; Fan, Shanhui
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 22
The radiative cooling of selective surfaces
journal, May 1975
- Catalanotti, S.; Cuomo, V.; Piro, G.
- Solar Energy, Vol. 17, Issue 2, p. 83-89
A transparent electrode based on a metal nanotrough network
journal, May 2013
- Wu, Hui; Kong, Desheng; Ruan, Zhichao
- Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 8, Issue 6