TY - GEN
T1 - Radiative cooling for solar cells
AU - Zhu, Linxiao
AU - Raman, Aaswath
AU - Wang, Ken X.
AU - Anoma, Marc A.
AU - Fan, Shanhui
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 SPIE.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Standard solar cells heat up under sunlight, and the resulting increased temperature of the solar cell has adverse consequences on both its efficiency and its reliability. We introduce a general approach to radiatively lower the operating temperature of a solar cell through sky access, while maintaining its sunlight absorption. We present first an ideal scheme for the radiative cooling of solar cells. For an example case of a bare crystalline silicon solar cell, we show that the ideal scheme can passively lower the operating temperature by 18.3 K. We then show a microphotonic design based on realistic material properties, that approaches the performance of the ideal scheme. We also show that the radiative cooling effect is substantial, even in the presence of significant non-radiative heat change, and parasitic solar absorption in the cooling layer, provided that we design the cooling layer to be sufficiently thin.
AB - Standard solar cells heat up under sunlight, and the resulting increased temperature of the solar cell has adverse consequences on both its efficiency and its reliability. We introduce a general approach to radiatively lower the operating temperature of a solar cell through sky access, while maintaining its sunlight absorption. We present first an ideal scheme for the radiative cooling of solar cells. For an example case of a bare crystalline silicon solar cell, we show that the ideal scheme can passively lower the operating temperature by 18.3 K. We then show a microphotonic design based on realistic material properties, that approaches the performance of the ideal scheme. We also show that the radiative cooling effect is substantial, even in the presence of significant non-radiative heat change, and parasitic solar absorption in the cooling layer, provided that we design the cooling layer to be sufficiently thin.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84930020758&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84930020758&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1117/12.2080148
DO - 10.1117/12.2080148
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84930020758
T3 - Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
BT - Physics, Simulation, and Photonic Engineering of Photovoltaic Devices IV
A2 - Sugiyama, Masakazu
A2 - Freundlich, Alexandre
A2 - Guillemoles, Jean-Francois
PB - SPIE
T2 - Physics, Simulation, and Photonic Engineering of Photovoltaic Devices IV
Y2 - 10 February 2015 through 12 February 2015
ER -