PVLimits: PV thermodynamic limit calculator

By Mohammad Ryyan Khan1; Xin Jin1; Muhammad A. Alam1

1. Purdue University

The tool is designed to calculate the thermodynamic performance limit of single-junction and multi-junction solar cells.

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Version 1.2 - published on 26 Jan 2017

doi:10.4231/D3SX64B3F cite this

This tool is closed source.

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Abstract

PVLimits software calculates the thermodynamic performance limits of single-junction (SJ) and multi-junction (MJ) solar cells. The user may choose the input spectrum (e.g., AM1.5G or Blackbody, distance from the Sun, concentration, etc.) and specify the parameters of the solar cell (temperature, bandgap, number of subcells in MJ cell etc.).

The calculations are based on detailed particle balance in the radiative limit.

PVLimits has options to calculate the following:

  1. Single junction PV:
    1. J-V for a single bandgap
    2. Eg-sweep: PV output parameters as a function of bandgap (Eg)
  2. Multi-junction PV:
    1. J-V for a given number of subcells (N). The bandgaps are optimized accordingly
    2. N-sweep: PV output parameters as a function of number of subcells (N).

Cite this work

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

  • Mohammad Ryyan Khan, Xin Jin, Muhammad A. Alam (2017), "PVLimits: PV thermodynamic limit calculator," https://nanohub.org/resources/pvlimits. (DOI: 10.4231/D3SX64B3F).

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Tags

  1. photovoltaics (PV)
  2. solar cells
  3. thermodynamics