The spectrum used here is the direct spectrum (AM 1.5D) where the diffuse radiation is excluded. In reality, the semiconductor materials do not exist to allow for arbitrary materials with a specific bandgap and of high quality.Įfficiency of a an ideal stack of solar cells as a function of the number of bandgaps 1. At the peak efficiency the top cell has a bandgap of 1.63 eV and the bottom cell has a bandgap of 0.96 eV.Īs the number of bandgaps increases the efficiency of the stack also potentially increases. Introduction Bifacial solar cell is a symmetric solar cell configuration in which sunlight is harnessed from both front and rear surfaces. The maximum efficiency for a two junction tandem under the AM1.5G spectrum and without concentration is 47 %. Keywords: Silicon, Bifacial Solar Cell, PC1D simulation 1.
The most common arrangement for tandem cells is to grow them monolithically so that all the cells are grown as layers on the on substrate and tunnel junctions connect the individual cells.
HOW DO I CALCULATE EFFICIENCY OF SOLAR CELL USING PC1D SERIES
Series connected cells are simpler to fabricate but the current is the same though each cell so this contrains the band gaps that can be used. Tandem solar cells can either be individual cells or connected in series. Adding more devices allows for each device to be optimized to a narrower spectrum giving a higher overall efficiency. One method to increase the efficiency of a solar cell is to split the spectrum and use a solar cell that is optimised to each section of the spectrum.