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The use of metal‐halide perovskites in photovoltaic applications has become increasingly attractive due to their low‐temperature manufacturing processes and long charge‐carrier lifetimes. High‐bandgap perovskite solar cells have potential for indoor applications due to their efficient absorption of the spectrum of light‐emitting diodes (LEDs). This study investigates the performance of high‐bandgap perovskite solar cells under a wide range of lighting conditions, including a commercially available white LED lamp with a 5–40 000 lx illuminance range and a standard 1 sun reference. The performance of CH3NH3PbI3‐based perovskite solar cells to CH3NH3Pb(I0.8,Br0.2)3 solar cells with varying electron transport layers (ETL), including PCBM, PCBM:CMC, and CMC:ICBA fullerene combinations, is compared. Because the spectral response of perovskite solar cells covers the white LED spectrum very well, the major performance difference is related to the open‐circuit voltage and fill factor. The cells with the CH3NH3Pb(I0.8,Br0.2)3 absorber layer and the CMC:ICBA ETL demonstrate superior open‐circuit voltage and therefore a high efficiency above 29% at 200–500 lx, typical for indoor lighting.

Increasing the efficiency of solar cells relies on light management. This becomes increasingly important for thin-film technologies, but it is also relevant for poorly absorbing semiconductors like silicon. Exemplarily, the performance of a-Si:H/µc-Si:H tandem solar cells strongly depends on the texture of the front and rear contact surfaces. The rear contact interface texture usually results from the front surface texture and the subsequent absorber growth. A well-textured front contact facilitates light-coupling to the solar cell and light-trapping within the device. A variety of differently textured ZnO:Al front contacts were sputter deposited and subsequently texture etched. The optical performance of a-Si:H/µc-Si:H tandem solar cells were evaluated regarding the two effects: light-coupling and light-trapping. A connection between the front contact texture and the two optical effects is demonstrated, specifically, it is shown that both are induced by different texture properties. These findings can be transferred to any solar cell technologies, like copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) or perovskites, where light management and modifications of surface textures by subsequent film growth have to be considered. A modulated surface texture of the ZnO:Al front contact was realized using two etching steps. Improved light-coupling and light-trapping in silicon thin-film solar cells lead to 12.5% efficiency.

p-type hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon oxide (µc-SiOx:H) was developed and implemented as a contact layer in hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) single junction solar cells. Higher transparency, sufficient electrical conductivity, low ohmic contact to sputtered ZnO:Al, and tunable refractive index make p-type µc-SiOx:H a promising alternative to the commonly used p-type hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (µc-Si:H) contact layers. In this work, p-type µc-SiOx:H layers were fabricated with a conductivity of up to 10−2 S/cm and a Raman crystallinity of above 60%. Furthermore, we present p-type µc-SiOx:H films with a broad range of optical properties (2.1 eV < band gap E04

The development of a transient temperature model of photovoltaic (PV) modules is presented in this paper. Currently, there are a few steady-state temperature models targeted at assessing and predicting the PV module temperature. One of the most commonly used models is the Faiman thermal model. This model is derived from the modified Hottel-Whillier-Bliss (HWB) model for flat-plate solar-thermal collector under steady-state conditions and assumes low or no thermal mass in the modules (i.e., short time constants such that transients are neglected, and steady-state conditions are assumed). The transient extension of the Faiman model we present in this paper introduces a thermal mass, which provides two advantages. First of all, it improves the temperature prediction under dynamic conditions. Second, our transient extension to the Faiman model allows the accurate parametrization of the Faiman model under dynamic conditions. We present our model and parametrization method. Furthermore, we applied the model and parametrization method to a 1-year data set with 5-min resolved outdoor module measurements. We demonstrate a significant improvement in temperature prediction for the transient model, especially under dynamic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]