Toward Low-Cost 4-Terminal GaAs//Si Tandem Solar Cells

authored by

Kaitlyn T. Vansant, John Simon, John F. Geisz, Emily L. Warren, Kevin L. Schulte, Aaron J. Ptak, Michelle S. Young, Michael Rienäcker, Henning Schulte-Huxel, Robby Peibst, Adele C. Tamboli

Abstract

Mechanically stacked III-V-on-Si (III-V//Si) tandem solar cells have demonstrated efficiencies beyond what can theoretically be achieved by single junction Si solar cells, but III-V costs are currently at least an order of magnitude higher than Si costs. Recent techno-economic analysis shows that costs could be substantially reduced by replacing traditional metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) with a lower-cost III-V deposition technique, such as hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE). This study analyzes the performance of an HVPE-grown GaAs top cell incorporated into a 4-terminal (4T) GaAs//Si tandem cell that achieved an efficiency of 29%, which is the highest solar cell efficiency fabricated without expensive deposition techniques such as MOVPE or MBE. We compare these results to an MOVPE-grown GaAs//Si tandem cell that has the same structure. Finally, we model optimizations to the HVPE-grown GaAs top cell and provide a near-term pathway to 31.4% efficiency with a low-cost III-V deposition technique.

External Organisation(s)

Colorado School of Mines (CSM)
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Institute for Solar Energy Research (ISFH)

Type

Article

Journal

ACS Applied Energy Materials

Volume

2

Pages

2375-2380

No. of pages

6

Publication date

22.04.2019

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Chemical Engineering (miscellaneous), Energy Engineering and Power Technology, Electrochemistry, Materials Chemistry, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy

Electronic version(s)

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acsaem.9b00018 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.9b00018 (Access: Closed)