Photovoltaic cell efficiency at elevated temperatures

Abstract

In order to determine what type of photovoltaic solar cell could best be used in a thermoelectric photovoltaic hybrid power generator, we tested the change in efficiency due to higher temperatures of three types of solar cells: a polymer cell, an amorphous silicon cell and a CIS cell. Using an AM1.5 G solar simulator at 973 W/m2 we took the I-V curve of each of the three cells at increasing temperatures. We used the I-V curve to find the maximum power and determine the efficiency of each cell with respect to temperature. We found that the CIS cell had an efficiency of 10% and the performance decreased with respect to temperature in a non-linear manner. The efficiency at 83*C was a peak and the same efficiency as at 40"C. We found that the amorphous silicon cell tested had an efficiency of 4% at 450C that decreased with respect to temperature in a linear manner such that an 800C increase in temperature resulted in an efficiency of 3%. We further found that the polymer cell efficiency decreased from 1.1% to 1% with a 60*C increase in temperature, but that the polymer cell is destroyed at temperatures higher than 1 00*C. We determined that CIS or amorphous silicon could be suitable materials for the photovoltaic portion of the hybrid system.