Improved silicon solar cells by tuning angular response to solar trajectory.

ABSTRACT: Silicon solar cell costs are reducing dramatically with these cells now providing the majority of new electricity generation capacity worldwide. Cost reduction has been via economies of scale and steadily increasing sunlight energy conversion efficiency. The best experimental cells at 27.4% efficiency approach the 29.4% figure almost universally regarded as the limit on silicon cell performance. Here we show that assumptions in deducing this limit are too restrictive, since failing to incorporate sunlight directionality. Furthermore, we show how this directionality and the cell's angular response can be quantified compatibly, using projections of angular dependencies of both onto the solar module plane. Even simple schemes for exploiting directionality, including installing solar modules f

SUBMITTER: Green MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11697001 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature