Solar modules with enhanced efficiencies via use of spectral concentrators

Inactive Publication Date: 2009-03-05
OMNIPV
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008]Embodiments of the invention relate to solar modules having enhanced efficiencies with respect to conversion of incident solar radiation to useful electrical energy. In one embodiment, a solar module includes a set of photovoltaic cells and a spectral concentrator optically coupled to the set

Problems solved by technology

The inability to convert the total incident solar radiation to useful electrical energy represents a loss or inefficiency of the solar module.
Current solar modules typically suffer a number of technical limitations on the ability to efficiently convert incident solar radiation to useful electrical energy.
Such excess energy is typically not converted into electrical energy but is rather typically lost as heat through hot charge carrier relaxation or thermalization.
This heat can raise the temperature of the PV cell and, as result, can reduce the efficiency of the PV cell in terms of its ability to produce electron-hole pairs.
In conjunction with these thermalization losses, photons with energy less than the bandgap energy of silicon are typical

Method used

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  • Solar modules with enhanced efficiencies via use of spectral concentrators
  • Solar modules with enhanced efficiencies via use of spectral concentrators
  • Solar modules with enhanced efficiencies via use of spectral concentrators

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Overview

[0017]Embodiments of the invention relate to solar modules having enhanced efficiencies with respect to conversion of incident solar radiation to useful electrical energy. For some embodiments, a solar module includes a spectral concentrator and a set of PV cells that are optically coupled to the spectral concentrator. The spectral concentrator can perform a number of operations, including: (1) collecting incident solar radiation; (2) converting the incident solar radiation to substantially monochromatic radiation near a bandgap energy of the PV cells; and (3) conveying the converted radiation to the PV cells, where the converted radiation can be converted to useful electrical energy. By converting a wide range of energies of the incident solar radiation to a narrow band of energies matched to the bandgap energy of the PV cells, significant improvements in efficiency can be achieved. In addition, the design of the PV cells can be optimized or otherwise tailored based on this...

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Abstract

Described herein are solar modules including spectral concentrators. In one embodiment, a solar module includes a set of photovoltaic cells and a spectral concentrator optically coupled to the set of photovoltaic cells. The spectral concentrator is configured to: (1) collect incident solar radiation; (2) convert the incident solar radiation into substantially monochromatic, emitted radiation; and (3) convey the substantially monochromatic, emitted radiation to the set of photovoltaic cells.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60 / 945,869, filed on Jun. 22, 2007, and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60 / 977,067, filed on Oct. 2, 2007, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The invention relates generally to solar modules. More particularly, the invention relates to solar modules including spectral concentrators.BACKGROUND[0003]A solar module operates to convert energy from solar radiation into electricity, which is delivered to an external load to perform useful work. A solar module typically includes a set of photovoltaic (“PV”) cells, which can be connected in parallel, in series, or a combination thereof. The most common type of PV cell is a p-n junction device based on crystalline silicon. Other types of PV cells can be based on amorphous silicon, polycrystalline silicon, germanium, organic materials, and Gro...

Claims

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Application Information

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IPC IPC(8): H01L31/042
CPCY02E10/52H01L31/055
Inventor PFENNINGER, WILLIAM MATTHEWMIDGLEY, JOHNVOCKIC, NEMANJAKENNEY, JOHNWANG, JIAN JIM
Owner OMNIPV
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