Study on the potential use of textured plastic covers to improve a solar cell performance

Abstract

A small solar cell was assembled with various textured surface covers and investigated for the effects of light transmission and surface temperature. Four textured covers made of plactic were studied, namely plain surface, inverted pyramids, light grooved Fresnel lens, round grooved Fresnel lens and two different exposed areas without any cover for benchmarking purposes, creating six test modules. Measurements of light transmission in terms of short circuit currents, Isc, were collected as a function of angle of incidence using a solar simulator. A thermocouple was also used to measure the temperature of the solar cell in order to evaluate the effect of textured surface covers on the solar cell temperature. Results show a decrease in short circuit current, Isc of up to 8.26% for inverted pyramids in comparison to the flat surface cover. In addition, the light gain, Isc, decreases at higher angles of incidence. Nonetheless, it was found that the inverted pyramids surface has a reasonable cooling effect with 2 °C of temperature drop. The decreased temperature will potentially increase the power output as well as efficiency of the solar cell with a textured cover. © 2018 Author(s).