Photovoltaic Solar Energy: From Fundamentals to Applications

Solar PV is now the third most important renewable energy source, after hydro and wind power, in terms of global installed capacity. Bringing together the expertise of international PV specialists Photovoltaic Solar Energy: From Fundamentals to Applications provides a comprehensive and up–to–date account of existing PV technologies in conjunction with an assessment of technological developments.  Key features:  Written by leading specialists active in concurrent developments in material sciences, solar cell research and application–driven R&D. Provides a basic knowledge base in light, photons and solar irradiance and basic functional principles of PV. Covers characterization techniques, economics and applications of PV such as silicon, thin–film and hybrid solar cells. Presents a compendium of PV technologies including: crystalline silicon technologies; chalcogenide thin film solar cells; thin–film silicon based PV technologies; organic PV and III–Vs; PV concentrator technologies; space technologies and economics, life–cycle and user aspects of PV technologies. Each chapter presents basic principles and formulas as well as major technological developments in a contemporary context with a look at future developments in this rapidly changing field of science and engineering. Ideal for industrial engineers and scientists beginning careers in PV as well as graduate students undertaking PV research and high–level undergraduate students.

List of Contributors

Biographies of Authors and editors

Foreword

Acknowledgment

1. Introduction
Angèle Reinders, Wilfried van Sark, Pierre J. Verlinden

2. Basic Functional Principles of Photovoltaics

2.1. Semiconductor materials and their properties
Angèle Reinders

2.2. Doping, diffusion and defects in solar cells
Pierre J. Verlinden

2.3–2.6. Absorption, generation, recombination and carrier transport, PN–junctions and diode equations

Seth Hubbard

3. Crystalline Silicon Technologies

3.1. Silicon Materials: Electrical and Optical Properties
Andreas Fell

3.2. Silicon Solar Cell Device Structures
Andrew Blakers and Ngwe Zin

3.3. Interdigitated Back Contact Solar Cells
Pierre Verlinden

3.4. Hetero–junction Si Cells
Wilfried van Sark

3.5. Surface Passivation and Emitter Recombination Parameters
Bram Hoex

3.6. Passivated Contacts
Martin Hermle

3.7. Light Management in Silicon Solar Cells
Zachary Holman and Mathieu Boccard

3.8. Numerical Simulation of Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells
Pietro Altermatt

3.9. Advanced Concepts
Martin Green

4. Chalcogenide Thin Film Solar Cells

4.1. Basics of Chalcogenide Thin Film Solar Cells
Susanne Siebentritt

4.2. Cu(In,Ga)Se2 and CdTe Absorber Materials and Their Properties
Sylvain Marsillac

4.3. Contacts, Buffers, Substrates and Interfaces
Negar Naghavi

4.4. CIGS Module Design and Manufacturing
Bill Shafarman

5. Thin Film Silicon Based PV Technologies

5.1. Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Silicon Solar Cells
Etienne Moulin, Jan–Willem Schüttauf and Christophe Ballif

5.2. Thin Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells on Glass
Onno Gabriel, Daniel Amkreutz, Jan Haschke, Bernd Rech and Rutger Schlatmann

5.3. Light–Management in Crystalline and Thin Film Silicon Solar cells
Franz Haug

5.4. New Future Concepts
Etienne Moulin, Jan–Willem Schüttauf and Christophe Ballif

6. Organic Photovoltaics

6.1. Solid–State Organic Photovoltaics
Bernard Kippelen

6.2. Hybrid and Dye–Sensitized Solar Cells
Woojun Yoon

6.3. Perovskite Solar Cells
Sam D. Stranks and Henry J. Snaith

6.4. Organic PV Module Design and Manufacturing
Veronique Gevaerts

7. Characterization and Measurement Methods

7.1. Methods and Instruments for the Characterization of Solar Cells
Halden Field

7.2. Photoluminescence and Electroluminescence Characterization in Silicon Photovoltaics
Thorsten Trupke

7.3. Measurement of Carrier Lifetime, Surface Recombination Velocity and Emitter Recombination Parameters
Henner Kampwerth

7.4. In–situ Measurements, Process Control, and Defect Monitoring
Angus Rockett

7.5. PV Module Performance Testing and Standards
Geoffrey Kinsey

8. III–Vs and PV Concentrator Technologies

8.1. III–V Solar Cells Materials, Multi–Junction Cells Cell Design and Performance
Frank Dimroth

8.2. New and Future III–V Cells and Concepts
Simon Fafard

8.3. High Concentration PV systems
Karin Hinzer, Christopher Valdivia and John Cook

8.4. Operation of Concentrator PV plants Energy Prediction
Geoffrey Kinsey

8.5. The Luminescent Solar Concentrator
Michael Debije

9. Space Technologies

9.1. Materials, Cell Structures and Radiation Effects
Rob Walters

9.2. Space PV Systems and Flight Demonstrations
Phillip Jenkins

9.3. A Vision on Future Developments in Space Photovoltaics
Dave Wilt

10. PV Modules and Manufacturing

10.1. Manufacturing of Various PV technologies
Alison Lennon and Rhett Evans

10.2. Encapsulant Materials for PV Modules
Michael Kempe

10.3. Reliability and Durability of PV Modules
Sarah Kurtz

10.4. Advanced Module Concepts
Pierre Verlinden

11. PV systems and Applications

11.1. Grid Connected PV Systems
Greg Ball

11.2. Inverters, Power Optimizers, and Microinverters
Chris Deline

11.3. Stand Alone and Hybrid PV Systems
Matthias Vetter and Georg Bopp

11.4. PV System Monitoring and Characterization
Wilfried van Sark, Atse Louwen, Odysseas Tsafarakis and Panos Moraitis

11.5. Energy Prediction and System Modeling
Joshua Stein

11.6. Building Integrated Photovoltaics
Michiel Ritzen, Zeger Vroon and Chris Geurts

11.7. Product Integrated Photovoltaics
Angele Reinders and Georgia Apostolou

12. PV deployment in distribution grids

12.1. PV systems in smart energy homes: PowerMatching City
Albert van den Noort

12.2. New Future Solutions: Best Practices from European PV Smart Grid Projects
Gianluca Fulli and Flavia Gangale

13. Supporting methods and tools

13.1. Economics of PV Systems
Matthew Campbell

13.2. People s Involvement in Residential PV and Their Experiences
Barbara van Mierlo

13.3. Life Cycle Analysis of Photovoltaics
Vasilis Fthenakis

13.4. List of International standards related to PV
Pierre Verlinden and Wilfried van Sark

Index

Commonly used Physical Constants

List of symbols used in this book

Abbreviations and acronyms

Prof Angèle Reinders, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Angèle Reinders is currently part–time professor of Energy–Efficient Design at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering of TU Delft and part–time Associate Professor at University of Twente, The Netherlands. She is co–founding Editor of IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.

Dr Pierre Verlinden, Trina Solar, China 
Pierre Verlinden is Vice–President and Chief Scientist at Trina Solar. Dr. Verlinden holds a Ph.D. and a Master s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. He has been working in the PV field for 35 years and has published over 90 technical papers and contributed to a number of books.

Wilfried van Sark, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Wilfried van Sark received his Ph.D. from Nijmegen University (The Netherlands) after which he spent 7 years as a post–doc researcher at Utrecht University specializing in a–Si:H cell deposition and analysis. After an Assistant Professor position at Nijmegen University he returned to Utrecht University, with a focus on (single molecule) confocal fluorescence microscopy of nano–crystals. In 2002 he became an Assistant Professor.  He performs and coordinates research on next generation PV devices incorporating nanocrystals (luminescent solar concentrators) as well as PV performance, smart grid development, life cycle analysis, socioeconomics, and policy development.

Prof Alexandre Freundlich, University of Houston, USA
Alexandre Freundlich is a research professor of physics and electrical and computer engineering at the University of Houston, where he is the project leader for the PV and nanostructures project in the Center for Advanced Materials.