40% efficient sunlight to electricity conversion

Abstract

Increasing sunlight conversion efficiency is a key driver for on-going solar electricity cost reduction. For photovoltaic conversion, the approach most successful in increasing conversion efficiency is to split sunlight into spectral bands and direct each band to a dedicated solar cell of an appropriate energy bandgap to convert this band efficiently. In this work, we demonstrate conversion of sunlight to electricity in a solar collector with an efficiency value above 40% for the first time, using a small 287-cm² aperture area test stand, notably equipped with commercial concentrator solar cells. We use optical band-pass filtering to capture energy that is normally wasted by commercial GaInP/GaInAs/Ge triple junction cells and convert this normally wasted energy using a separate Si cell with higher efficiency than physically possible in the original device. The 287-cm² aperture area sunlight-concentrating converter demonstrating this independently confirmed efficiency is a prototype for a large photovoltaic power tower system, where sunlight is reflected from a field of sun-tracking heliostats to a dense photovoltaic array mounted on a central tower. In such systems, improved efficiency not only reduces costs by increasing energy output for a given investment in heliostats and towers but also reduces unwanted heat generation at the central tower. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.