GaAs solar cells for Indoor Light Harvesting

Author

Mathews, Ian ; Kelly, George ; King, Paul J. ; Frizzell, Ronan

Author_Institution

Efficient Energy Transfer Dept., Alcatel-Lucent, Dublin, Ireland

fYear

2014

fDate

8-13 June 2014

Abstract

GaAs solar cells are the highest efficiency single-junction photovoltaic technology. Their wide bandgap lends them to efficient conversion of indoor light. In this paper GaAs solar cells are experimentally compared to Dye Sensitised solar cells, traditionally used for indoor light harvesting. The power density of GaAs solar cells was found to be over 3× greater than DSSC modules under indoor light levels. A credit card sized GaAs cell can provide 0.67 mW or 4 mW to a wireless sensor node in a dimly lit corridor (~200 lux) or well-lit office space (~1000 lux) respectively. A near linear relationship is measured between the open-circuit and maximum power voltages of GaAs solar cells at low light levels allowing their use with power conditioning circuits (MPPT tracking) based on the fractional-voltage method.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; energy harvesting; gallium arsenide; maximum power point trackers; solar cells; wireless sensor networks; DSSC modules; GaAs; MPPT tracking; dye sensitised solar cells; fractional-voltage method; indoor light harvesting; open-circuit; power 0.67 mW to 4 mW; power conditioning circuits; power density; single-junction photovoltaic technology; solar cells; well-lit office space; wireless sensor node; Batteries; Decision support systems; Density measurement; Gallium arsenide; Photovoltaic cells; Wireless communication; Wireless sensor networks; DSSC; GaAs; IoT; energy harvesting; solar;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC), 2014 IEEE 40th

Conference_Location

Denver, CO

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2014.6924971

Filename

6924971