TY - JOUR
T1 - Statistical analysis of surface nanopatterned thin film solar cells obtained by inverse optimization
AU - Hajimirza, Shima
AU - Howell, John R.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - This work is a statistical study of the broadband light absorption in thin film solar cells, enhanced by metallic surface nanotexturing. We consider optimum grating structures on the surface of amorphous silicon solar cells obtained by inverse optimization, and study the joint statistics of the resulting absorption enhancement/spectra in the presence of time and structural variants, such as fabrication error and year around changes in the solar irradiance, as well as the angle of incident. We adopt yearly data for solar irradiation at individual hours. In conjunction with the data for light absorption spectra at various incident angles and random samples of the fabrication error vector, we evaluate the real world performance of optimized solar cells. The resulting conclusions serve as a sensitivity/ time analysis for better understanding the limits of performance and robustness of thin film cells and optimal light trapping mechanisms.
AB - This work is a statistical study of the broadband light absorption in thin film solar cells, enhanced by metallic surface nanotexturing. We consider optimum grating structures on the surface of amorphous silicon solar cells obtained by inverse optimization, and study the joint statistics of the resulting absorption enhancement/spectra in the presence of time and structural variants, such as fabrication error and year around changes in the solar irradiance, as well as the angle of incident. We adopt yearly data for solar irradiation at individual hours. In conjunction with the data for light absorption spectra at various incident angles and random samples of the fabrication error vector, we evaluate the real world performance of optimized solar cells. The resulting conclusions serve as a sensitivity/ time analysis for better understanding the limits of performance and robustness of thin film cells and optimal light trapping mechanisms.
KW - Fabrication error
KW - Optimization
KW - Sensitivity analysis
KW - Solar irradiance
KW - Thin film solar cells
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U2 - 10.1115/1.4024464
DO - 10.1115/1.4024464
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84883366741
SN - 0022-1481
VL - 135
JO - Journal of Heat Transfer
JF - Journal of Heat Transfer
IS - 9
M1 - 091007
ER -