A simulation approach for investigating the performances of cadmium telluride solar cells using doping concentrations, carrier lifetimes, thickness of layers, and band gaps (original) (raw)
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Simulation of Performance of Cadmium Telluride Solar Cell Using AMPS-1D Program
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In this research, we have used the AMPS-1D program to study the enhancement of the Cadmium telluride cell efficiency by studying the relationship between efficiency and some variables, such as the thickness and doping density of the cell layers, type of the back contact metal, and changes in solar radiation and temperature. Simulation results showed that the efficiency increased largely with the increase in the thickness of the absorbent layer CdTe, until the value of (1500 nm), by reducing the thickness of the layer of CdS (n-type), and it does not depend on the thickness of the front contact layer (SnO 2). The efficiency depends largely on the doping concentration of the absorbent layer (N A). When the efficiency increases with vaccination rate up to the value 10 16 cm-3 , then it does not increase significantly, while a higher efficiency is reached when the vaccination of CdS layer is at the value 10 17 cm-3. The cell has a high stability at high temperatures with a decreasing rate of 0.08%/°C. The efficiency depends on the type of metal used as a back contact material in the cell under study, and showed that the Aluminum (Al) gives higher efficiency than other metals. As a result installation of Cadmium telluride cell by adoption of the values obtained increases the efficiency of the cell from 13.8% to 19.5%.
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Cadmium telluride (CdTe)/cadmium sulfide (CdS) solar cell is a promising candidate for photovoltaic (PV) energy production, as fabrication costs are compared by silicon wafers. We include an analysis of CdTe/CdS solar cells while optimizing structural parameters. Solar cell capacitance simulator (SCAPS)-1D 3.3 software is used to analyze and develop energy-efficient. The impact of operating thermal efficiency on solar cells is highlighted in this article to explore the temperature dependence. PV parameters were calculated in the different absorber, buffer, and window layer thicknesses (CdTe, CdS, and SnO2). The effect of the thicknesses of the layers, and the fundamental characteristics of open-circuit voltage, fill factor, short circuit current, and solar energy conversion efficiency were studied. The results showed the thickness of the absorber and buffer layers could be optimized. The temperature had a major impact on the CdTe/CdS solar cells as well. The optimized solar cell has...
Simulation of cadmium telluride solar cells structure
2010
A solar cell or photovoltaic cell is designed to convert sunlight into electrical energy through the photoelectric effect. Solar cells are the most attractive source to harness solar energy; it is not only has high efficiency, but also protect our environment from pollution and producing zero greenhouse effect. There have been numerous studies on cadmium telluride (CdTe) compound in solar cell research as studies shows that CdTe can provide a good efficiency and yet cost effective. This paper presents a simple study investigating cadmium telluride solar cells structure by using MATLAB software. This study is aimed to investigate the parameters such as drift component, diffusion component, thickness also to analyse the efficiency of the cadmium telluride layer. The studies conclude that in order to achieve an efficiency of 28-30%, the thickness of the CdTe layer, the uncompensated acceptor concentration and carrier lifetime should be ≥12μm, ≥1016 cm-3 and ≥ 10-11s respectively.
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Journal of Photonics for Energy, 2014
Cadmium telluride (CdTe) is the most commercially successful thin-film photovoltaic technology. Development of CdTe as a solar cell material dates back to the early 1980s when ∼10% efficient devices were demonstrated. Implementation of better quality glass, more transparent conductive oxides, introduction of a high-resistivity transparent film under the CdS junction-partner, higher deposition temperatures, and improved Cl-treatment, doping, and contacting approaches yielded >16% efficient cells in the early 2000s. Around the same time period, use of a photoresist plug monolithic integration process facilitated the demonstration of the first 11% efficient module. The most dramatic advancements in CdTe device efficiencies were made during the 2013 to 2014 time frame when small-area cell conversion efficiency was raised to 20% range and a champion module efficiency of 17% was reported. CdTe technology is attractive in terms of its limited life-cycle greenhouse gas and heavy metal emissions, small carbon footprint, and short energy payback times. Limited Te availability is a challenge for the growth of this technology unless Te utilization rates are greatly enhanced along with device efficiencies. Back Contact CdTe Junction Partner TCO Superstrate TCO Junction Partner CdTe Back Contact Substrate Fig. 1 CdTe solar cell configurations: (a) superstrate and (b) substrate. Başol and McCandless: Brief review of cadmium telluride-based photovoltaic technologies revealed a verified 18.3% efficient device, which was followed by an 18.7% cell by First Solar. In early 2013, GE announced a 19.6% device. In mid-2013, First Solar acquired the GE technology and, in 2014, announced a new champion cell with 20.4% efficiency. 5 Current-voltage characteristics of the 18.7% device and the quantum efficiency (QE) data for the 17.3, 18.3, and 18.7% devices can be found in Ref. 27 [also see below]. Parameters of the 19.6% device 32 were V oc ¼ 857.3 mV, J sc ¼ 28.59 mA∕cm 2 , FF ¼ 0.80. Unfortunately, there are no details about these highly efficient devices. However, improvements in efficiency seem to be marked by gains in J sc , most probably by modification of the glass type/thickness, an optimized AR coating as well as modifications to the window layer stack to achieve more optical throughput. It should be noted that the J sc value of the 16.7% device from National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) was 26.1 mA∕cm 2 , whereas this value is improved to 28.59 mA∕cm 2 for the recent 19.6% efficient cell. The voltage improvement was only ∼12 mV. Başol and McCandless: Brief review of cadmium telluride-based photovoltaic technologies Journal of Photonics for Energy 040996-4 Vol. 4, 2014
High Efficiency CdTe/CdS Thin Film Solar Cell
International Journal of Engineering Research and, 2015
Cadmium telluride is a promising photovoltaic material for thin-film solar cells. A study has been made to improve the efficiency of CdTe/CdS solar cell. To obtain the highest efficiency, the thickness of CdTe and CdS has been modified separately to check the improvement of cell efficiency in PC1D simulator and efficiency beyond 20% has been achieved.
WSEAS Transactions on Environment and Development, 2010
Abstract:-Polycrystalline cadmium telluride (CdTe) is the leading material for realization of low cost and high efficiency solar cell for terrestrial use. In this work, a conventional structure of CdTe thin film solar cells [1] was investigated and conversion efficiency as high as 13.2% was achieved with the CdTe baseline structure of SnO2/CdS/CdTe. To explore the possibility of ultra thin and high efficiency CdS/CdTe solar cells, the CdTe absorber layer and CdS window layer were decreased to the extreme limit and 1 m thin CdTe layer is ...
Numerical Analysis on Prospects of High Efficiency CdS/CdTe Thin Film Solar Cell
Photovoltaic (PV) energy is one of the significant renewable energies with free and permanent resource. Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) is from group II-VI of compound polycrystalline semiconductors. The CdTe solar cell material can be produced in thinness of film; hence, it is very appropriate for thin film solar cell industry production. The main purpose of this investigation is to model and analyze a prospect structure of thin film CdTe solar cell by AMPS-1D software. In this solar cell structure, Thin Oxide (SnO 2) as front contact, Cadmium Sulfide (CdS) as window layer, CdTe as absorber layer and Molybdenum (Mo) as back contact are used respectively. In this paper, the carrier concentration changes, thicknesses effects, temperature stability and effect of two buffer layers of Zinc Stannate (Zn 2 SnO 4) and Zinc Oxide (ZnO) on the CdTe solar cell output performance are investigated to obtain an optimum thin film structure of CdTe solar cell. This study aims to obtain the thickness of f...
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ES energy & environment, 2020
The efficiency and steadiness of solar cells are dependent on the experimental conditions during the fabrication of the device. In the present review, development in the last few decades in CdTe/CdS solar cells on different conducting substrates, their characterizations, and their effect on their performances has been illustrated. The variations in the efficiency were observed for the CdTe/CdS solar cells because of not only different deposition methods but also the difference in deposition conditions. In addition to this contact, material plays a significant role in the performance of a solar cell. CdTe/CdS solar cells with cheaper, greater efficiency can be possible soon.
Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 2010
Cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin film solar cell has long been recognized as a leading photovoltaic candidate for its high efficiency and low cost. A numerical simulation has been performed using AMPS-1D simulator to explore the possibility of higher efficiency and stable CdS/CdTe cell among several cell structures with indium tin oxide (ITO) and cadmium stannate (Cd 2 SnO 4) as front contact material, tin oxide (SnO 2), zinc oxide (ZnO) and zinc stannate (Zn 2 SnO 4) as buffer layer, and silver (Ag) or antimony telluride (Sb 2 Te 3) with molybdenum (Mo) or zinc telluride (ZnTe) with aluminium (Al) as back contact material. The cell structure ITO/i-ZnO/CdS/CdS x Te 1 À x /CdTe/Ag has shown the best conversion efficiency of 16.9% (Voc ¼0.9 V, Jsc ¼ 26.35 mA/cm 2 , FF¼0.783). This analysis has shown that ITO as front contact material, ZnO as buffer layer and ZnTe or Sb 2 Te 3 back surface reflector (BSR) are suitable material system for high efficiency (4 15%) and stable CdS/CdTe cells. The cell normalized efficiency linearly decreased at a temperature gradient of À 0.25%/1C for ZnTe based cells, and at À 0.40%/1C for other cells.
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Thin Solid Films, 2000
Cadmium telluride (CdTe) has long been recognized as a strong candidate for thin ®lm solar cell applications. It has a bandgap of 1.45 eV, which is nearly ideal for photovoltaic energy conversion. Due to its high optical absorption coef®cient essentially all incident radiation with energy above its band-gap is absorbed within 1±2 mm from the surface. Thin ®lm CdTe solar cells are typically heterojunctions, with cadmium sul®de (CdS) being the n-type junction partner. Small area ef®ciencies have reached the 16.0% level and considerable efforts are underway to commercialize this technology. This paper will present work carried out at the University South Florida sponsored by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the United States Department of Energy, on CdTe/CdS solar cells fabricated using the close spaced sublimation (CSS) process. The CSS technology has attractive features for large area applications such as high deposition rates and ef®cient material utilization. The structural and optical properties of CSS CdTe and CdS ®lms and junctions will be presented and the in¯uence of some important CSS process parameters will be discussed.