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Thermodynamics of losses in photovoltaic conversion

Thermodynamics of losses in photovoltaic conversion
Thermodynamics of losses in photovoltaic conversion
This letter presents a thermodynamic analysis of losses in an ideal solar cell. It is shown that the maximum voltage—corresponding to the voltage produced by a hot-carrier solar cell — is equal to the energy of the incident solar photon multiplied by the appropriate Carnot factor. Voltage generated by the usual p-n junction cell is lower on account of entropy generation through kinetic losses, photon cooling, and étendue expansion of the incident beam. Simple expressions can be obtained by an approximation where the energy and entropy changes are modeled by the corresponding expressions for a two-dimensional ideal photon gas.
0003-6951
064102-[3pp]
Markvart, Tom
f21e82ec-4e3b-4485-9f27-ffc0102fdf1c
Markvart, Tom
f21e82ec-4e3b-4485-9f27-ffc0102fdf1c

Markvart, Tom (2007) Thermodynamics of losses in photovoltaic conversion. Applied Physics Letters, 91 (6), 064102-[3pp]. (doi:10.1063/1.2766857).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This letter presents a thermodynamic analysis of losses in an ideal solar cell. It is shown that the maximum voltage—corresponding to the voltage produced by a hot-carrier solar cell — is equal to the energy of the incident solar photon multiplied by the appropriate Carnot factor. Voltage generated by the usual p-n junction cell is lower on account of entropy generation through kinetic losses, photon cooling, and étendue expansion of the incident beam. Simple expressions can be obtained by an approximation where the energy and entropy changes are modeled by the corresponding expressions for a two-dimensional ideal photon gas.

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Published date: 6 August 2007
Organisations: Engineering Mats & Surface Engineerg Gp

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 48122
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/48122
ISSN: 0003-6951
PURE UUID: 6aa51b3f-1110-4873-964b-e6a464161f6e

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Date deposited: 29 Aug 2007
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 09:43

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