Tandem PV Micro Concentrator

closed

One method we use to reduce the cost of the GaAs cells is to place it at the focus of a thin plastic solar concentrator that produces tenfold concentration of sunlight on the cell. This reduces the amount of GaAs that we need by ten times. The concentrator which are the cells are mounted on a standard one-axis solar tracker – the same that is used in most large PV systems these days.Key resultsThe project has the potential to benefit the Australian energy system through the introduction of a novel, high efficiency solar cell system. The system is designed to be easily integrated into existing single-axis tracking system for simple large-scale deployment.A prototype tandem PV micro concentrator module was developed with a GaAs/Si underlying cell efficiency of 30%. This demonstrates the potential of the novel combination of non-imaging micro concentrators with GaAs and silicon cells for single-axis tracking systems. Further work could improve the overall efficiency of the tandem module.The fabrication of GaAs SLIVER cells was demonstrated, which is a pathway to decrease the cost of GaAs cells. Improvements in GaAs SLIVER cell design and fabrication methods could further improve the efficiency. Use of the SLIVER process in combination with optical concentration has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of high efficiency GaAs/Si tandem PV systems.

High