• DOI:10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366508
• Corpus ID: 44399244

Micro-optical Tandem Luminescent Solar Concentrators

@article{Needell2017MicroopticalTL,
  title={Micro-optical Tandem Luminescent Solar Concentrators},
  author={David R. Needell and Ognjen Ilic and Colton R. Bukowsky and Zach Nett and Lu Xu and Junwen He and Haley Bauser and Benjamin G. Lee and John F. Geisz and Ralph G. Nuzzo and A. Paul Alivisatos and Harry A. Atwater},
  journal={arXiv: Applied Physics},
  year={2017}
}

• David R. Needell, O. Ilic, +9 authors H. Atwater
• Published 5 September 2017
• Physics
• arXiv: Applied Physics

Traditional concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems utilize multijunction cells to minimize thermalization losses, but cannot efficiently capture diffuse sunlight, which contributes to a high levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and limits their use to geographical regions with high direct sunlight insolation. Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) harness light generated by luminophores embedded in a light-trapping waveguide to concentrate light onto smaller cells. LSCs can absorb both direct and diffuse sunlight, and thus can operate as flat plate receivers at a fixed tilt and with a conventional module form factor. However, current LSCs experience significant power loss through parasitic luminophore absorption and incomplete light trapping by the optical waveguide. Here we introduce a tandem LSC device architecture that overcomes both of these limitations, consisting of a PLMA polymer layer with embedded CdSe/CdS quantum dot (QD) luminophores and InGaP micro-cells, which serve as a high bandgap absorber on top of a conventional Si photovoltaic. We experimentally synthesize CdSe/CdS QDs with exceptionally high quantum-yield (99%) and ultra-narrowband emission optimally matched to fabricated III-V InGaP micro-cells. Using a Monte Carlo ray-tracing model, we show the radiative limit power conversion efficiency for a module with these components to be 30.8% diffuse sunlight conditions. These results indicate that a tandem LSC-on-Si architecture could significantly improve upon the efficiency of a conventional Si photovoltaic module with simple and straightforward alterations of the module lamination steps of a Si photovoltaic manufacturing process, with promise for widespread module deployment across diverse geographical regions and energy markets.