Effects of Operating Temperature on the Performance of c-Si, a-Si:H, CIGS, and CdTe/CdS Based Solar Cells

Abstract

Solar photovoltaic technology is one of the most promising, economical and green technologies to harvest energy with the least effect on the environment. Crystalline silicon (c-Si), amorphous silicon (a-Si), CIGS, CdTe/CdS etc., are dominating the PV market. Operating temperature plays an important role in the performance of solar cells. A comparative investigation on the effect of operating temperature on the market available solar cells is very important in choosing the better PV technology in high-temperature applications. In this study, the performances of different solar cell technologies, namely crystalline silicon (c-Si), amorphous silicon (a-Si), CIGS, and CdTe/CdS based solar cells, have been investigated under different operating temperature by using SCAPS-1D simulation software. All parameter of a solar cell for different technology has been studied under the varying operation temperature ranging from 25 ºC to 70 ºC and the rate of change of them has been recorded. It has been found that the Voc and Pmax degrade significantly and Isc increases slightly with an increase in temperature. The temperature coefficients of Pmax for c-Si, a-Si, CdTe and CIGS have been found as -0.0724/K, -0.0362/K, -0.0112/K and -0.0663/K, respectively. On the other hand, c-Si and CIGS technologies show better quantum efficiency behaviour in both room and high operating temperatures.