skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Spectral binning for energy production calculations and multijunction solar cell design

Journal Article · · Progress in Photovoltaics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.2943· OSTI ID:1415018
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2]
  1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Univ. Politecnica de Madrid (Spain)
  2. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Currently, most solar cells are designed for and evaluated under standard spectra intended to represent typical spectral conditions. However, no single spectrum can capture the spectral variability needed for annual energy production (AEP) calculations, and this shortcoming becomes more significant for series-connected multijunction cells as the number of junctions increases. For this reason, AEP calculations are often performed on very detailed yearlong sets of data, but these pose 2 inherent challenges: (1) These data sets comprise thousands of data points, which appear as a scattered cloud of data when plotted against typical parameters and are hence cumbersome to classify and compare, and (2) large sets of spectra bring with them a corresponding increase in computation or measurement time. Here, we show how a large spectral set can be reduced to just a few 'proxy' spectra, which still retain the spectral variability information needed for AEP design and evaluation. The basic 'spectral binning' methods should be extensible to a variety of multijunction device architectures. In this study, as a demonstration, the AEP of a 4-junction device is computed for both a full set of spectra and a reduced proxy set, and the results show excellent agreement for as few as 3 proxy spectra. This enables much faster (and thereby more detailed) calculations and indoor measurements and provides a manageable way to parameterize a spectral set, essentially creating a 'spectral fingerprint,' which should facilitate the understanding and comparison of different sites.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1415018
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5J00-68331
Journal Information:
Progress in Photovoltaics, Vol. 26, Issue 1; ISSN 1062-7995
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 9 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (24)

Analysis of Multijunction Solar Cell Current–Voltage Characteristics in the Presence of Luminescent Coupling journal October 2013
Spectral study and classification of worldwide locations considering several multijunction solar cell technologies: Spectral study and classification of worldwide locations journal May 2016
Generalized Optoelectronic Model of Series-Connected Multijunction Solar Cells journal November 2015
The influence of spectral solar irradiance variations on the performance of selected single-junction and multijunction solar cells journal June 1991
Status of C3MJ+ and C4MJ Production Concentrator Solar Cells at Spectrolab journal April 2012
Current-matching estimation for multijunction cells within a CPV module by means of component cells: Current-matching estimation for MJ cells within a concentrator journal June 2012
Band gap-voltage offset and energy production in next-generation multijunction solar cells journal November 2010
Optimization of Multijunction Solar Cells Through Indoor Energy Yield Measurements journal January 2015
Triple-junction solar cell performance under Fresnel-based concentrators taking into account chromatic aberration and off-axis operation
  • Espinet-González, P.; Mohedano, R.; García, I.
  • 8TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONCENTRATING PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS: CPV-8, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4753839
conference January 2012
Simple Solar Spectral Model for Direct and Diffuse Irradiance on Horizontal and Tilted Planes at the Earth's Surface for Cloudless Atmospheres journal January 1986
Effects of Temperature on Hybrid Lens Performance
  • Askins, Steve; Victoria, Marta; Herrero, Rebeca
  • 7TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONCENTRATING PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS: CPV-7, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3658294
conference January 2011
Comparing The Energy Yield of (III–V) Multi-Junction Cells With Different Numbers Of Sub-Cells
  • Lumb, M. P.; Dobbin, A. L.; Bushnell, D. B.
  • 6TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONCENTRATING PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS: CPV-6, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3509216
conference January 2010
Investigations on the temperature dependence of CPV modules equipped with triple-junction solar cells
  • Peharz, Gerhard; Ferrer Rodríguez, Juan P.; Siefer, Gerald
  • Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, Vol. 19, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.987
journal December 2010
Tuning the current ratio of a CPV system to maximize the energy harvesting in a particular location
  • Victoria, M.; Askins, S.; Nuñez, R.
  • 9TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONCENTRATOR PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS: CPV-9, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4822221
conference January 2013
Energy harvesting efficiency of III–V triple-junction concentrator solar cells under realistic spectral conditions journal May 2010
Efficient Multijunction Solar Cell Design for Maximum Annual Energy Yield by Representative Spectrum Selection journal March 2017
Assessing the Efficiency of Advanced Multijunction Solar Cells in Real Working Conditions: A Theoretical Analysis journal November 2015
Spectrum Sensitivity, Energy Yield, and Revenue Prediction of PV Modules journal January 2015
Non-linear luminescent coupling in series-connected multijunction solar cells journal June 2012
Development, cost reduction and customized design of industrial concentrator solar cells with efficiencies approaching 40% and above conference June 2010
Field spectra binning for energy production calculations and multijunction solar cell design
  • Garcia, Ivan; McMahon, William E.; Habte, Aron
  • 2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC) https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2015.7356207
conference June 2015
Modelling of tandem cell temperature coefficients conference January 1996
Temperature dependence of photovoltaic cells, modules and systems conference January 1996
Optimization of inverted metamorphic multijunction solar cells for field-deployed concentrating PV systems conference June 2009

Cited By (1)

Solar cell designs by maximizing energy production based on machine learning clustering of spectral variations journal December 2018

Similar Records

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
energy harvesting efficiency
multijunction solar cells
spectral binning