Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) [AZO] is a good candidate to be used as a transparent conducting oxide [TCO]. For solar cells having a hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide [a-SiC:H] or hydrogenated amorphous silicon [a-Si:H] window layer, the use of the AZO as TCO results in a deterioration of fill factor [FF], so fluorine-doped tin oxide (Sn02:F) [FTO] is usually preferred as a TCO. In th...

In the case of high photovoltaic (PV) penetration into the electricity grid, the energy produced by a PV system that is effectively used (useful energy) depends on the energy yield and on how this energy is managed to avoid detrimental effects occurring at high PV injection, e.g. during the midday peak. The overall goal of this thesis is to provide guidelines for maximizing the useful energy of...

Solar rechargeable flow cells (SRFCs) provide an attractive approach for in situ capture and storage of intermittent solar energy via photoelectrochemical regeneration of discharged redox species for electricity generation. However, overall SFRC performance is restricted by inefficient photoelectrochemical reactions. Here we report an efficient SRFC based on a dual-silicon photoelectrochemical ...

The optical properties of metal nanoparticles are explored as a function of lateral size, shape, aspect-ratio and metal type. Simulations based on the discrete dipole approximation are compared with experimental measurements of arrays of metal nanoparticles fabricated by electron-beam lithography. Careful selection of experimental parameters ensures minimization of far-field and near-field coup...

Photovoltaic cells are able to convert sunlight into electricity, providing enough of the most abundant and cleanest energy to cover our energy needs. However, the efficiency of current photovoltaics is significantly impeded by the transmission loss of sub-band-gap photons. Photon upconversion is a promising route to circumvent this problem by converting these transmitted sub-band-gap photons i...

Bulk crystalline Silicon solar cells are covering more than 85% of the world’s roof top module installation in 2010. With a growth rate of over 30% in the last 10 years this technology remains the working horse of solar cell industry. The full Aluminum back-side field (Al BSF) technology has been developed in the 90’s and provides a production learning curve on module price of constant 20% in a...

two organic compounds (sc-23=(e)-2-cyano-3-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl) acrylic acid and sc-25=(e)-2-cyano-3-(2,5-dimethoxyphenyl) acrylic acid) involving methoxy groups as the electron donor and cyanoacrylic acid group as the electron acceptor have been investigated for dye sensitized solar cells. they shows a short-circuit current density (jsc) of 2.08 and 1.81 ma cm-2, an open circuit voltage (voc)...

A corona discharge is used to create and store negative charge in the silicon nitride films of silicon dioxide/silicon nitride stacks. Effective lifetime measurements on both textured and planar, as well as both boron diffused and undiffused silicon samples passivated with silicon oxide/silicon nitride stacks, show that the creation of negative charge in the nitride layer results in an improvem...