Numerical analysis of the temperature effects on single junction solar cells efficiencies

A numerical analysis of the temperature effects on single-junction solar cells efficiencies is presented. In this work the temperature effects are included both explicitly in the input empirical parameters such as the mobility, carrier concentration, affinity energy, etc. and implicitly considered in the governing physics. The semiconductors used in this study are Si, GaAs, and CdTe, and the temperature range were chosen to be in the range from 300 K to 350 K to mimic realistic operation range. For the Si cell, the efficiency dropped from 25.84% at room temperature to around 20.95% at 350 K, for GaAS cell from 28.01% to 23.95%, and for CdTe from 18.87% to 17.20%. Quantitatively CdTe cells are less affected by temperature change compared to Si and GaAs Cells; but, within the used range, still Si and GaAs cells are more efficient than CdTe.