Nature-inspired spherical silicon solar cell for three-dimensional light harvesting, improved dust and thermal management

Nazek El-Atab,Rana Shamsuddin,Rabab Bahabry,Nadeem Qaiser,Muhammad Mustafa Hussain,Wedyan Babatain

doi:10.1557/mrc.2020.44

Abstract

Highlights

In today’s photovoltaic (PV) industry, silicon solar cells dominate almost 90% of the world’s PV production due to their low cost, good efficiency, exceptional reliability, together with the high natural abundance of the silicon material
The spherical solar cell is fabricated using our previously developed corrugation technique applied on commercial grade single-crystal silicon solar cells (25 in2) with interdigitated back contacts (IBC) and 19% efficiency
The results show that the spherical solar cell is capable of capturing the largest amount of back-reflected light when the aluminum cup is used with a 1 cm height, resulting in a 101% increase in power output compared to the flat solar cell with the same ground area [Figs. 2(b)–2(d); Supplementary Figs

Summary

Introduction

In today’s photovoltaic (PV) industry, silicon solar cells dominate almost 90% of the world’s PV production due to their low cost, good efficiency, exceptional reliability, together with the high natural abundance of the silicon material. Even though alternative materials have proven promising for solar cells application, such as III–V semiconductors, quantum dots/wires, and organics,[1,2,3] a significant amount of research is continuously being conducted on unconventional techniques to exploit monocrystalline silicon solar cells in an attempt to maximize their light harvesting and increase their power output for the same ground area These methodologies range from innovative light trapping schemes[4,5,6] to advanced cell designs,[7,8,9,10] creative doping profiles,[11,12,13,14] and cutting-edge manufacturing techniques.[15,16,17,18] As a matter of fact, the ultimate goals in PV research are (i) to increase the efficiency of solar cells, (ii) enable them to capture the maximum amount of sunlight, (iii) reduce heat generation, and (iv) mitigate dust accumulation problems.

Results and discussion

Background reflection effect

Conclusions