Equivalent performance in three-terminal and four-terminal tandem solar cells

verfasst von

Manuel Schnabel, Michael Rienacker, Emily L. Warren, John F. Geisz, Robby Peibst, Paul Stradins, Adele C. Tamboli

Abstract

Tandem or multijunction solar cells are a promising method to circumvent the efficiency limit of single-junction solar cells, but there is ongoing debate over how best to interconnect the subcells in a tandem cell. In addition to four-terminal and two-terminal tandem cell architectures, a new three-terminal tandem cell architecture has recently been demonstrated, which features a standard two-terminal (front-back) circuit as well as an interdigitated back contact (IBC) circuit connected to the bottom cell. It has no middle contacts, and thus, maintains some of the simplicity of a two-terminal tandem. In this study, we measure four-terminal GaInP//Si and GaInP/GaAs//Si tandem cells in four-terminal and three-terminal configurations by connecting wires to mimic a three-terminal architecture. We demonstrate that both modes allow the same efficiencies exceeding 30% to be attained. Furthermore, we show that the IBC circuit not only collects excess power from the bottom cell, but that it can inject power into the bottom cell if it is current limiting the front-back circuit, enabling four-terminal performance in monolithic structures, regardless of which cell delivers less current.

Externe Organisation(en)

National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Institut für Solarenergieforschung GmbH (ISFH)

Typ

Artikel

Journal

IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics

Band

8

Seiten

1584-1589

Anzahl der Seiten

6

ISSN

2156-3381

Publikationsdatum

11.2018

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Elektronische, optische und magnetische Materialien, Physik der kondensierten Materie, Elektrotechnik und Elektronik

Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung

SDG 7 – Erschwingliche und saubere Energie

Elektronische Version(en)

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=8454791 (Zugang: Offen)
https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2018.2865175 (Zugang: Geschlossen)