Work

Analytical evaluation of output gain in photovoltaic-thermoelectric tandems

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: We analytically derived general requirements for photovoltaic (PV)–thermoelectric (TE) tandems gaining efficiencies beyond those of the original PV cells, and evaluated their output gain. We compared the derived gain-requirement equations with data of reported PV cells and TE devices, and showed that gain is practically possible with GaAs and thin c-Si PV cells in PV-TE generator (TEG) tandems but not in PV-TE cooler (TEC) tandems. We showed that combinations with BiTe TEGs can improve the efficiency of practical GaAs PV cells from 24% to 28.4% and that of ideal GaAs PV cells from 33% to 34.6%.

Source: Applied Physics Express

DOI: 10.35848/1882-0786/adb82d

Authors: Jun Sakuma, Kenji Kamide, Hidefumi Akiyama

Institutions: The Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo, The University of Tokyo, Renewable Energy Advanced Research Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

Language: English

Topic: Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices

Subfield: Materials Chemistry

Field: Materials Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Affordable and clean energy

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,365