This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 10368, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, and Conference Committee listing.

What can happen over the next 15 years, as photovoltaic (PV) power costs continue to decrease and markets expand? This talk will cover the range of opportunities associated with changes in energy supply in developed and developing economies. We will review the history of solar and discuss the key role of professionals in communicating a vision for the future. Our efforts to inform and educate a wide range of stakeholders will be essential to seeing the potential for wide adoption of PV become a reality. This talk will endeavor to convey some of the stories essential to enabling our outreach.

Photovoltaic (PV) technology has experienced an amazing development during the last decade, driven by the rapidly decreasing cost at even more rapidly increasing production volumes. This development is discussed from both perspectives, the global PV market and the technology developments accompanying this process. An outlook is given for the possible size of the global PV installations in 2030 and 2050.

New technologies are helping energy system owners improve performance and service to their customers while creating a sustainable energy future. But many of these new tools and processes are unproven and costly, which may hinder their large scale deployment. This talk will address the topic of new technology bankability and how owners, technology providers and financial institutions assess their risk exposure before embarking on significant projects. The talk will focus on the lessons learned from the rapid growth of the photovoltaic industry and discuss areas where technology risk should be further reduced.

The rigorous coupled-wave approach was implemented in a three-dimensional setting to calculate the chargecarrier-generation rate in a thin-film solar cell with multiple amorphous-silicon p-i-n junctions. The solar cell comprised a front antireflection window; three electrically isolated p-i-n junctions in tandem; and a periodically corrugated silver back-reflector with hillock-shaped corrugations arranged on a hexagonal lattice. The differential evolution algorithm (DEA) was used to maximize the charge-carrier-generation rate over a set of selected optical and electrical parameters. This optimization exercise minimized the bandgap of the topmost i–layer but all other parameters turned out to be uninfluential. More importantly, the exercise led to a configuration that would very likely render the solar cell inefficient. Therefore, another optimization exercise was conducted to maximize power density. The resulting configuration was optimal over all parameters.

A two-dimensional model was developed to simulate the optoelectronic characteristics of indium-gallium-nitride (I_nξGa_1-ξN), thin-film, Schottky-barrier-junction solar cells. The solar cell comprises a window designed to reduce the reflection of incident light, Schottky-barrier and ohmic front electrodes, an n-doped I_nξGa_1-ξN wafer, and a metallic periodically corrugated back-reflector (PCBR). The ratio of indium to gallium in the wafer varies periodically in the thickness direction, and thus the optical and electrical constitutive properties of the alloy also vary periodically. This material nonhomogeneity could be physically achieved by varying the fractional composition of indium and gallium during deposition. Empirical models for indium nitride and gallium nitride, combined with Vegard’s law, were used to calculate the optical and electrical constitutive properties of the alloy. The periodic nonhomogeneity aids charge separation and, in conjunction with the PCBR, enables incident light to couple to multiple surface plasmon-polariton waves and waveguide modes. The profile of the resulting chargecarrier-generation rate when the solar cell is illuminated by the AM1.5G spectrum was calculated using the rigorous coupled-wave approach. The steady-state drift-diffusion equations were solved using COMSOL, which employs finite-element methods, to calculate the current density as a function of the voltage. Mid-band Shockley– Read–Hall, Auger, and radiative recombination rates were taken to be the dominant methods of recombination. The model was used to study the effects of the solar-cell geometry and the shape of the periodic material nonhomogeneity on efficiency. The solar-cell efficiency was optimized using the differential evolution algorithm.

The growing need for cost-effective renewable energy sources is hampered by the stagnation in solar cell technology, thus preventing a substantial reduction in the module and energy-production price. Lowering the energy-production cost could be achieved by using modules with efficiency. One of the possible means for increasing the module efficiency is concentrated photovoltaics (CPV). CPV, however, requires complex and accurate active tracking of the sun that reduces much of its cost-effectiveness. Here, we propose a passive tracking scheme based on a reactive optical device. The optical reaction is achieved by a new kind of light activated mechanical force that acts on micron-sized particles. This optical force allows the formation of granular disordered optical media that can be switched from being opaque to become transparent based on the intensity of light it interacts with. Such media gives rise to an efficient passive tracking scheme that when combined with an external optical cavity forms a new solar power conversion approach. Being external to the cell itself, this approach is indifferent to the type of semiconducting material that is used, as well as to other aspects of the cell design. This, in turn, liberates the cell layout from its optical constraints thus paving the way to higher efficiencies at lower module price.

In this paper a prototype spectrum-splitting photovoltaic system based on volume holographic lenses (VHL) is designed, fabricated and tested. In spectrum-splitting systems, incident sunlight is divided in spectral bands for optimal conversion by a set of single-junction PV cells that are laterally separated. The VHL spectrumsplitting system in this paper has a form factor similar to conventional silicon PV modules but with higher efficiencies (>30%). Unlike many other spectrum-splitting systems that have been proposed in the past, the system in this work converts both direct and diffuse sunlight while using inexpensive 1-axis tracking systems. The VHL system uses holographic lenses that focus light at a transition wavelength to the boundary between two PV cells. Longer wavelength light is dispersed to the narrow bandgap cell and shorter wavelength light to the wide bandgap cell. A prototype system is designed with silicon and GaAs PV cells. The holographic lenses are fabricated in Covestro Bayfol HX photopolymer by ‘stitching’ together lens segments through sequential masked exposures. The PV cells and holographic lenses were characterized and the data was used in a raytrace simulation and predicts an improvement in total power output of 15.2% compared to a non-spectrum-splitting reference. A laboratory measurement yielded an improvement in power output of 8.5%.

Graphene is a high temperature material which can stand temperature as high as 4600 K in vacuum. Even though its work function is high (4.6 eV) the thermionic emission current density at such temperature is very high. Graphene is a wonderful material whose work function can be engineered as desired. Kwon et al41 reported a chemical approach to reduce work function of graphene using K₂CO₃, Li₂CO₃, Rb₂CO₃, Cs₂CO₃. The work functions are reported to be 3.7 eV, 3.8 eV, 3.5 eV and 3.4 eV. Even though they did not report the high temperature tolerance of such alkali metal carbonate doped graphene, their works open a great promise for use of pure graphene and doped graphene as emitter (cathode) and collector (anode) in a solar thermionic energy converter. This paper discusses the dynamics of solar energy conversion to electrical energy using thermionic energy converter with graphene as emitter and collector. We have considered parabolic mirror concentrator to focus solar energy onto the emitter to achieve temperature around 4300 K. Our theoretical calculations and the modelling show that efficiency as high as 55% can easily be achieved if space-charge problem can be reduced and the collector can be cooled to certain proper temperature. We have discussed methods of controlling the associated space-charge problems. Richardson-Dushman equation modified by the authors have been used in this modelling. Such solar energy conversion would reduce the dependence on silicon solar panel and has great potential for future applications.

This Conference Presentation, “Solar Fuels” was recorded at SPIE Optics + Photonics 2017 held in San Diego, California, United States.