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Light concentration effect on PV performance and efficiency | EME 812: Utility Solar Power and Concentration

EME 812
UTILITY SOLAR POWER AND CONCENTRATION

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5.2. Light concentration effect on PV performance

and efficiency Print

5.2. Light concentration effect on PV performance and efficiency

Let us nd out how the concentration of light a ects the I-V characteristics of a solar cell. We remember from
Lesson 4 that the generation current of a solar cell (IL) is a function of number of photons (N) hitting the
photovoltaic surface:

(5.1)
I L = qN a

where q is the electron charge, and A is the surface area of the cell. When light is concentrated, the number of
photons increases according to the optical concentration ratio, so does the cell current. So, for the short circuit
current of a solar cell (Isc), we can write:

(5.2)
I sc (concentrated light) = Copt I sc (incident light, 1 Sun)

where Copt is the optical concentration ratio (its de nition was covered in Lesson 3). For convenience, we can
denote cell performance parameters at concentrated light with an asterisk:

∗
(5.3)
I sc = Copt I sc

This equation essentially shows how much the cell short circuit current will change when the available light is
concentrated Copt times. Then, we can substitute this equation to the I-V characteristic equation, which
describes the cell performance over ranges of voltage and current:

(5.4)
C opt Isc
∗ kT
Voc = ln ( + 1)
q Io

where Voc* is the open circuit voltage (at concentrated light), k is the Boltzmann constant, T is the absolute
temperature, and Io is the dark saturation current. Now, we are going to modify this equation because we
want to nd how the open circuit voltage at concentrated light would be related to the open circuit voltage at
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7/8/2020 5.2. Light concentration effect on PV performance and efficiency | EME 812: Utility Solar Power and Concentration

ambient light. We know that the short circuit current is the highest current a solar cell can show, while the
dark current is a very low number, so the quotient in the parenthesis should be much greater than 1, and
therefore, a simpli ed form of Equation (5.4) should be true:

(5.5)
C opt Isc
∗ kT
Voc ≈ ln ( )
q Io

Next, this equation can be modi ed by extending the natural log as follows:

Voc
∗
=
kT
lnCopt +
kT
ln (
Isc
) (5.6)
q q Io

The second term here is equal to Voc - the open circuit voltage without concentration, so we can write nally:

(5.7)
∗ kT
Voc = Voc + lnCopt
q

From Equation (5.7), it is obvious that there is logarithmic dependence between the cell open circuit voltage
and the light concentration ratio. For example, if Copt = 10, the (kT/q)lnCopt term would be equal to 60 milivolts
at 25oC - this is by how much the cell voltage will increase with tenfold light concentration. In case of higher
concentration, for example, Copt = 1000, the voltage increase would be expected to be closer to 178 mV at 25
°C, which is relatively modest compared to current increase.

To estimate the concentration e ect on maximum power output, we will use the equation (which was
introduced in Lesson 4):

∗ ∗ ∗
Pmax =  Voc × I sc × F F                          (5.8)

Substituting here Equations (5.3) and (5.7) and re-arranging, we obtain:

kT ln Copt
∗
Pmax = Pmax Copt (1 + )
q Voc

(5.9)

Self-Check Question 1
A solar cell generates maximum power of 2.3 W at regular light conditions at 25 °C. The open circuit
voltage is measured at 0.55 V. Can you apply Equation (5.9) to estimate the maximum power of the
solar cell if the light is concentrated 10 times (Copt = 10)?

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7/8/2020 5.2. Light concentration effect on PV performance and efficiency | EME 812: Utility Solar Power and Concentration

Click to reveal the answer



Pmax* = 25.5 W
For the calculation, we use the Boltzmann constant k=1.38 × 10^-23 J/K, elementary
charge q = 1.6 × 10^-19 C, temperature in Kelvin (298 K), and open circuit voltage in
volts.

As you can see, the cell power can raise dramatically because of light concentration, mainly because the cell
current is signi cantly increased.

From the maximum power equation, we can further derive the e ect of concentration on cell e ciency:

Pmax
η =
G
(5.10)

In this equation e ciency, (η) is expressed as the ratio of maximum cell power output to the irradiance on the
cell surface. So, for concentrated light, the irradiance will be ampli ed to G* (which is proportional to Copt). The
maximum power output at the concentrated light, Pmax, can be expressed as Voc*Isc*FF according to equation
(4.9) in Lesson 4. Therefore, the expression for e ciency at the concentrated light can be modi ed as follows:

∗ ∗

(5.11)
Voc Isc FF ln C opt
∗ kT
η = ∗
= η (1 + )
G q Voc

The algebraic transformation above is done by substituting Equations (5.3) and (5.7) into the equation (you can
check). As a result, we see how "concentrated" e ciency (η*) is related to "non-concentrated" e ciency (η)
through the optical concentration ratio. Try to apply this equation to nd out what happens with the e ciency
if you concentrate light ten times:

Self-Check Question 2
A solar cell has e ciency of conversion 15% at 25 oC (298 K). Open circuit voltage of the cell is 0.55 V.
What e ciency ideally can we expect from it, when light is concentrated ten times (Copt = 10)? Use
equation (5.11) and type your number (in percent) below:

 Click to reveal the answer

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7/8/2020 5.2. Light concentration effect on PV performance and efficiency | EME 812: Utility Solar Power and Concentration

As you can see, the e ciency of the solar cell increases slightly in concentrated light, but this increase is not as
apparent as for absolute output parameters (e.g. power). This is because in e ciency we always consider a
ratio of the output to input energy. Both output and input energies increase due to concentration, so based on
Eq. (5.10) the e ciency does not change much. Moreover, the e ciency of real solar cells cannot increase
inde nitely because of power losses to heat. The amount of those losses is determined by the cell series
resistance (Rs). The higher the series resistance, the bigger the power losses:

2
Ploss = I × RS (5.12)

Because the current owing through the cell is proportional to the light concentration ratio, the power wasted
can be presented as:

2 2
Ploss ≅ Copt × I sc × RS (5.13)

The power loss will grow very rapidly as the concentration ratio increases because of the exponent factor. So,
there is no sense to increase concentration in nitely because those e orts may not pay o in terms of useful
power increase. According to some studies (Luque, 1989), there is an optimum concentration ratio for each
type of cells. It is pretty much dictated by the cell series resistance and can be expressed as follows:

Copt ≅ (
kT
)
1
(5.14)
q Isc Rs

Example
We are going to use Equation 5.14 to estimate the optimal concentration ratio for a solar cell of
internal series resistance of 0.01 Ohm and producing short circuit current of 150 mA (at regular light).

The factor (kT/q) at 25 °C will be equal to 0.026 V, so for the optimal concentration, we can write:

Copt =  0.026 /  (0.01 Ohm × 0.150 A)   =  17.33

That means that concentrating light at much greater than x17 ratios becomes unfeasible because of
excessive losses.

Many solar cells designed for concentrated light in fact have special features to reduce the series resistance,
but the limits of design may still be dependent on the cell material. For silicon, for example, it is hard to create
cells that would be e cient at concentration ratios higher than 200 (Markvart, 2000).

‹ 5.1. What are concentrating photovoltaics? up 5.3. Advanced materials for CPV ›

EME 812: Utility Solar Power and Concentration

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7/8/2020 5.2. Light concentration effect on PV performance and efficiency | EME 812: Utility Solar Power and Concentration

Lessons
Lesson 1: Solar Energy Conversion and Utility Solar Power
Lesson 2: Concentration Fundamentals
Lesson 3: Tracking Systems
Lesson 4: Photovoltaics
Lesson 5: Concentrating Photovoltaics
Overview
5.1. What are concentrating photovoltaics?
5.2. Light concentration e ect on PV performance and e ciency
5.3. Advanced materials for CPV
5.4. CPV Market overview
5.5. Ongoing activities and projects in CPV
Summary and Final Tasks
Lesson 6: PV Power Conditioning
Lesson 7: Concentrating Solar Power Technologies
Lesson 8: Concentrating Solar Power Strategies
Lesson 9: Energy Storage Technologies for Solar Systems
Lesson 10: Utility Scale Solar + Storage
Individual Course Project

Authors: Mark Fedkin, John A. Dutton e-Education Institute, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Penn State University.

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