Modeling and Simulation of Solar Photovoltaic System to Improve the Conversion Efficiency

Abstract

Renewable sources of the energy are becoming primary source of energy newlinereplacing the conventional sources of energy such as natural gas, oil, coal and nuclear. newlineAmong different renewable sources, solar energy is one of the most promising newlinesolutions to fulfil the growing energy demand. As a renewable source, solar newlineenergy has vital role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate newlinechange which is critical to protect entire ecosystems. newlineThere are different ways to harvest solar energy. Among them, photovoltaic newlinecells or solar cells are the most popular choice, which directly converts solar energy newlineinto electrical energy. Current research work on solar cells is primarily focused on newlineefficiency improvement and cost reduction. Over the years, different technologies and newlinematerials is explored to improve the performance of solar cell. Among the different newlinephotovoltaic technologies, multi-junction solar cells based on III-V material have newlineachieved highest conversion efficiency. In multi-junction solar cells, semiconductor newlinematerials with different bandgaps are stacked together to absorb wide range of solar newlinespectrum, which results in high conversion efficiency. High conversion efficiency newlinemakes multi-junction solar cell suitable for terrestrial and space application. Apart newlinefrom this, multi-junction solar cell offers low energy generation cost. Although newlinehaving high conversion and being the state-of-art, series connected multi-junction newlinesolar cells have constraints such as current matching and lattice matching, this newlinesignificantly impacts its efficiency. The main objective of this PhD thesis is to study newlineand develop a numerical model for high efficiency multi-junction solar cell. In newlinecontrast to the series connected multi-junction solar cell, proposed numerical model newlinehave modified electrical connection between the sub-cells. Top to bottom (Module to newlineCell) approach have been adopted for the development of simulation models during newlinethe thesis work. Initially a simulation model of single junction module is developed. newline