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I. INTRODUCTION
The Sun is a very powerful, cleaan and convenient
source of energy, particularly for human beinng. Solar Power is
totally free from any kinds of emissions, including carbon
dioxide. According to an increasing woorld-wide energy
demand in the 21st century and of a need for
f a clean energy
source, humanity desperately needs assureed, reliable, 24/7,
economical energy sources and for that purrpose Solar Power
Satellite (SPS) [1] concept has been explored by scientists and
engineers. Solar power satellite (SPS) is a renewable and
infinite energy system in the Geostationary Earth
E
Orbit (GEO),
which works as an electric power plant in space. To collect
solar power we need solar panel with effficient solar cell
attached with satellite system.
A solar cell [2] is a semiconductor device designed and
fabricated to efficiently absorb the light eneergy and convert it
into electrical energy. Sunlight impinges through the top
surface of the solar cell. Conventional Solar cell
c
is made when
an n-type and p-type semiconductor are brought together
forming a metallurgical junction. This is achieved through
diffusion or ion implantation of specific impurities or by
The state-of-the-art in photovvoltaic (PV) devices is multijunction solar cell (MJSC). Space power generation has
involved the continual improovement of device designs to
achieve higher efficiencies froom MJSC. Multi-junction solar
cells [1] consist of some singgle-junction solar cells stacked
upon each other, so that each layer going from the top to the
bottom has a smaller bandgapp than the previous, and so it
absorbs and converts the photons that have energies greater
than the bandgap of that layer and less than the bandgap of the
higher layer.
The first multi-junction device was demonstrated in early
1980s, and it converted 16% off the solar energy into electricity
[3]. In 1994, US National Renewable
R
Energy Laboratory
(NREL) broke the 30% barrieer. An efficiency of 40.7% was
achieved [4] in 2007 with GaInP/GaInAs/Ge
G
triple-junction
version of the solar cell. Bessides, the maximum theoretical
efficiency of multi- junction soolar cell is 86.8% [5].
However, recently in December 2014 Jointlyy Soitec and CEALeti, France, together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar
Energy Systems ISE ,Germany announced thhat in the lab they
have achieved an efficiency of 46% [6] for the conversion of
sunlight into electricity using III-V multi-juunction solar cell.
Besides several investigation and researchh works are also
conducting now-a-days by space agencies and laureate
researchers. Though several researcheers have been
investigated on solar cells, however, further research
r
regarding
to the highly efficient solar cell for space solar
s
panel is still
needed.
In our research work we will deploy electricaal characterization
of solar cell with different generation such ass- Mono and Polycrystalline Silicon, Thin-film Solar Cell, annd Full Spectrum
Utilization. However, major part of this research work is
Multi-Junction Solar Cell for the uses in SP
PS system. So the
basic principle of our research effort is to give a brief idea
about different kinds of solar cells available in market with
their comparative efficiency study and eveery pros and cons
with physics of Multi-Junction Solar Cell (MJSC) involved
with space use. Present status of MJSC is also discussed here
with efficiencies.
II. ELECTRICAL CHARACTERIZ
ZATION
A. Current-Voltage (I-V) Curves
Solar cells can be operated overr a wide range of
voltages and currents. I-V curves are usedd to measure the
electrical characteristics of photovoltaic (PV
V) devices, and are
normally presented as current-voltage charracteristic curves,
or I-V curves. These curves are reallized by varying
continually the load resistance from openn-circuit to shortcircuit states, registering the voltage and currrent values. Figure
2 displays a typical I-V curve plot. On an I-V plot, the
ordinate refers to current, and the abscissa too voltage. The I-V
curve passes through two significant pointss, the short-circuit
current (Isc ) and the open-circuit voltage (Vocc).
B. Maximum Power (P
max
max
oc
max
sc
I max .Vmaxx
[%] (1)
I sc .Voc
D. Conversion Efficiency
The conversion efficciency of a solar cell is the
percentage of the total incidentt solar energy on a photovoltaic
device that is converted into ellectrical energy. This relation is
given by
Conversion Efficiency =
Pmax
. (2)
Inciddent Solar Energy
Fig. 3.
3 Efficiency Comparisons among Different Solar Cells
Fig. 5. The AM1.5 solar spectrum1 and the parts of the spectrum
s
that can, in theory, are used by: (a) Si solar cells; (b) Ga0.335In0.65P/Ga0.83In0.17As/Ge solar cells [14]
D. Lattice Constants
To generate optical transparency and maximum
current conductivity in monollithic multi junction solar cells,
all layers must have similar crrystal structure. The spacing of
the atom locations in a crystal structure
s
is commonly known as
lattice constant. Any kinds off mismatch in the crystal lattice
constants of different layers create deviation in the lattice of
the cell layers and significantlly decline the efficiency of the
solar cell. NREL showed [17] that a lattice mismatch as small
as 0.01% significantly decreasses the current produced by the
solar cell. In the figure-6 linnes between different materials
represent semiconductors thatt can be created by combining
different amounts of the two materials. GaAs, AlAs and Ge
have same lattice constant with different bandgaps, and
compositions of these materiaals are currently used to create
high-efficiency triple-junction cells [18].
E. Current matching
The fabrication of monolithically-grown multijunction solar cells makes maatching of currents a desirable
characteristic [19]. As the layeers are in the series the currents
through each of the subcells are imposed to have the same
value. The current is directly proportion al to the number of
incident photons exceeding thee semiconductors bandgap, and
the absorption constant of the material.
m
V. CONCLUSION
Due to the worlds economical growth over the past thirty
years, there is increasing demand in finding new, highly
efficient renewable alternatives to fossil fuel-based energy
supplies. One of the most promising and easily available nonfossil fuel alternatives is solar power. To collect solar energy
we need PV technology i.e. Mono and Poly-crystalline Silicon
solar cells or Thin film solar cells or III-V Multi-junction solar
cells (MJSC). The efficiency of space solar cells has achieved
dramatic improvements as the focus diverted from Si toward
multi-junction
semiconductor
solar
cell
such
as
Ga0.35In0.65P/Ga0.83In0.17As/Ge etc. We have depicted in our
research work that III-V MJSCs are the suitable candidate for
the Space Solar Power Satellite (SSPS) system to collect solar
power through utilizing the entire solar spectrum. The higher
efficiencies rather than other available solar cells and radiation
resistance of III-V MJSCs have made them perfect
replacement for silicon cells on many space vehicles and
satellites. So, it can be said that the state-of-the-art in
photovoltaic (PV) devices is III-V Multi-junction solar cell
which consists of some single-junction solar cells pile up upon
each other, so that each layer going from the top to the bottom
has a smaller bandgap than the previous with differing by
nearly equal energies. Higher energy photons are absorbed in
the upper layers and lower energy photons are passed to the
lower layers. Although III-V multi-junction cells are costly to
produce rather than the other solar cells, Concentrated
Photovoltaics (CPV) can be used to counter this issue. The
application of concentrators allow multi-junction solar cells to
be manufactured at a much lower cost as the relative value of a
lens or mirror is much lower than semiconductor material.
REFERENCES
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