The study and simulation of the concentrator solar cell

• Main Author: Singh, Suniljit Gill
• Other Authors: Ong Keng Sian, Vincent
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/67831
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

As technology has become a huge part of our lives, the electricity usage in the world has greatly increased. Majority of the electricity generated today are supported through the use of fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and petroleum. These are non-renewable sources which will quickly run out and also contributes significantly to our carbon emissions. A long term, renewable and cheap alternative needs to be developed. Solar energy provides a renewable method of generating electricity through the photovoltaic process. Based on the needs at the time, three generations of solar cells have been developed. The first generation focuses around high efficiency at high cost using single junction crystalline silicon solar cells. The second generation uses thin film cells in an attempt to lower the production cost. The third generation is still largely being researched. One concept uses multi-junction cells to further improve the efficiency of the solar cell. In an attempt to conserve space and further lower cost of solar cells, concentrator photovoltaics were developed. These cells use smaller solar cells and are installed with optical elements to concentrate incident sunlight. An analysis has shown that concentrator photovoltaics were able to increase the efficiency of all three generations of solar cells.