Abstract
The energy conversion efficiency of a conventional junction solar cell decreases as the temperature increases, and this may eventually lead to failures in the photovoltaic system, especially if it uses concentrated solar radiation. In this work, we show that spectrally selective reflector (SSR) surfaces can be important for reducing the heat buildup on passively cooled solar cells. We outline a computational scheme for optimizing DC magnetron-sputtered :Nb-based SSRs tailored for silicon solar cells and find good agreement of the reflectance with an experimental realization of the optimal SSR. A figure of merit for SSRs has also been derived and applied to the experimental data.
© 2011 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
Mghendi Mwamburi, Ewa Wäckelgård, Arne Roos, and Rogath Kivaisi
Appl. Opt. 41(13) 2428-2434 (2002)
Braden Bills, Nathan Morris, Mukul Dubey, Qi Wang, and Qi Hua Fan
Opt. Express 23(3) A71-A82 (2015)
Mounir Zahir and Mourad Benlattar
Appl. Opt. 60(2) 445-451 (2021)