Print Email Facebook Twitter Too Many Junctions? Title Too Many Junctions?: A Case Study of Multijunction Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells Author Si, F.T. (TU Delft Photovoltaic Materials and Devices) Isabella, O. (TU Delft Photovoltaic Materials and Devices) Zeman, M. (TU Delft Electrical Sustainable Energy) Department Electrical Sustainable Energy Date 2017 Abstract The benefit of two-terminal multijunction solar cells in regard to the numberof junctions (subcells) is critically evaluated. The optical and electrical lossesinherent in the construction of multijunction cells are analyzed using informationfrom thin-film silicon photovoltaics as a representative case. Althoughthe multijunction approach generally reduces the thermalization and nonabsorption losses, several types of losses rise with the number of subcells.Optical reflection and parasitic absorption are slightly increased by addingsupporting layers and interfaces. The output voltages decline because of thetunnel recombination junctions, and more importantly of the illuminationfiltered and reduced by the top subcell(s). The loss mechanisms consumethe potential gains in efficiency of multijunction cells. For thin-film silicon,the triple-junction is confirmed to be the best performing structure. Moregenerally, only when each component subcell shows a high ratio between theoutput voltage and the bandgap of the absorber material, a multijunction cellwith a large number of subcells can be beneficial. Finally, the high voltageand low current density of multijunction cells with a large number of subcellsmake them difficult to optimize and manufacture, vulnerable to any changesin the solar spectrum, and thus less practical for the ordinary terrestrialapplications. Subject Loss analysismultijunction solar cellsphotovoltaic cellsthin-film silicontwo-terminal monolithic cells To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2769099a-7cb4-4eeb-bf07-0e9681a4ffbe DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/adsu.201700077 ISSN 2366-7486 Source Advanced Sustainable Systems, 1 (10), 1-13 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2017 F.T. Si, O. Isabella, M. Zeman Files PDF Si_et_al_2017_Advanced_Su ... ystems.pdf 592.74 KB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:2769099a-7cb4-4eeb-bf07-0e9681a4ffbe/datastream/OBJ/view