65
ISST Journal of Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 6 No. 1, (January - June 2015), p.p. 65-67
ISSN 0976-7371 © Intellectuals Society for Socio-Techno Welfare
A NEW SOLAR CELL TECHNOLOGY FOR ULTRA
HIGH EFFICIENCY
Aman Kumar and Mohd. Parvez
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Al-Falah University, Faridabad-121004, Haryana, India
E-mail: amanjisinha@yahoo.com, mparvezalig@rediffmail.com
MS Received Through : National Conference on Advancements in Mechanical Engineering (NCAME-2015),
held at Al-Falah University, Faridabad, Haryana, India on April 16, 2015
ABSTRACT
In our article, we have tried to show, how to drastically improve the photovoltaic conversion eficiency and obtain eficiency over 40%.
It can be achieved from improvement of multi-junction solar cells, by introducing a novel material, Indium Gallium Nitride, an ideal
combination of band gaps and lattice matching. Its nano structure such as stacked quantum wells and quantum dots allow freedom in
the design of band gap and lattice strain. This controlled arrangement of nano structure dots and quantum wells permits the coupling
of wave- functions, which allows multiple photon absorption leading to a conversion eficiency exceeding 50 %. Its nano fabrication
technology realizes high eficiency with low cost. Since such solar cells operate under a sun light concentration of 5009 to 10009, the
cost of cells does not pose a problem. Multi junction solar cells laminated with multilayer of P-N junctions conigured by materials with
different band gaps, show promise in absorbing as much of these photons as possible and converting the photon energy into electricity.
1. INTRODUCTION
The world today depends on fossil fuels and nuclear
power for generation of electricity to meet our domestic
and industrial requirement of electricity .Fossil fuel is
very limited and it is affecting our climate change. This
pollution with climate change is a cause of anxiety all over
the world. Nuclear power is full of risks. Hence world
today wants a source of energy, which is cheap, sustainable
and pollution free. This anxiety is driving mankind to
solar research. Solar energy is green, sustainable and
cheap. Efforts are being made to improve solar cells
with conversion eficiency. The world wants to go from
temporary to permanent source of energy.
Research in solar energy is going all over the world with
renewed interest Billions of dollars are being spent over
research. The results are being satisfactory. The costs
of solar cells with eficiency in conversion are being
manufactured and used all over the world.
Since 1990 global solar PV modules production has
increased 500 fold from 46 mega watt to 23.5 GW in 2010
and it reached 28 GW in 2012. This growth is driven by
reduced cost and higher performance of solar cells .At $3per
watt for complete PV systems electricity consumption has
risen to 440 billion Kwh, equivalent to over 300 GW of the
capacity in U.S alone.
2. REVIEW OF RELATED DEVELOPMENT OF PV CELLS
1
st
generation polycrystalline silicon (P-S) and single
crystalline silicon solar cells have limited abilities to
improve performance and reduced cost further. Such solar
cells have a single junction and indirect band gap. Hence
they require a considerable thickness of semiconductor
material. Solar 2
nd
generation thin ilm solar photovoltaic
technology such as hydrogenated amorphous silicon,
copper indium cadimium telluride (Cd Te) also use single
junction cells. There is energy loss mechanism which limits
the eficiency from rapid thermalisation of photo excited
carriers. In this technology costs become progressive
dominated by those constituent materials.
The most promising approach to further reduction in cost for
clean solar electricity is to increase the conversion eficiency
of solar cell .The most successful method of reducing loss
is to subdivide the broad solar emission spectrum in two
different energy ranges (colours) and to convert each range
with a cell of a well matched band gap to absorb that colour
.These spectral splitting can be obtained by stacking cells
on top one another. These stacked cells have already been