Abstract Efficient circular contact grids are developed for solar cells intended for work at high levels of concentrated sunlight. The cell efficiency is studied as a function of grid design, concentration ratio and cell radius. It was found that there is a trade-off between the maximum cell efficiency and the decay in the efficiency as a function of concentration. For Al x Ga 1− x As-GaAs cells 15 mm in diameter a high efficiency may be achieved even at a concentration of over 300-fold with a shading loss as low as 5%. For a concentration of 800 suns, good results may be obtained at about 10% shading. At 800 suns, doubling the cell diameter from 1 to 2 cm accounts for less than a 2% loss in cell efficiency, and this loss in efficiency is primarily related to the power loss due to increased current flow through the grid towards the outer collector.
[1]
F. Paletta,et al.
High efficiency 1.43 and 1.69 eV band gap Ga1−xAlxAsGaAs solar cells for multicolour applications
,
1981
.
[2]
L. W. James,et al.
GaAs concentrator solar cell
,
1975
.
[3]
J. Harris,et al.
High‐efficiency AlGaAs/GaAs concentrator solar cells
,
1979
.
[4]
M. Conti.
Optimal design of front-contact metallization for photovoltaic solar cells
,
1981
.
[5]
A. Milnes,et al.
Optimization of multi-layer front-contact grid patterns for solar cells
,
1979
.
[6]
K. W. Böer.
The solar spectrum at typical clear weather days
,
1976
.