Analysis of fundamental light receiving characteristics of spherical solar cells.

Spherical solar cells are claimed to have some advantageous characteristics superior to those of ordinary planar solar cells. The most significant one is that the spherical solar cells have no directivity to light. This paper examines the characteristics based on geometrical considerations. The authors prove that a single spherical cell has no directivity as a whole. In practical use, many cells are used in an array configuration, where an individual cell receives the shadows cast by other cells around it. The adjacent shadows, so named in this paper, cause directivity. Their effects are evaluated geometrically and the theoretical considerations are verified through experiments. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn, 91(6): 34–46, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (<URL>www.interscience.wiley.com</URL>). DOI 10.1002/ecj.10119 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]