Investigation of the Efficiency Boost Due to Spectral Concentration in a Quantum-Dot Based Luminescent Concentrator

Luminescent concentrators may have significant promise for producing low-cost PV energy. Luminescent concentrators convert the solar spectrum and concentrate the sunlight, but the benefit that can be obtained by the spectral conversion is not obvious. This paper presents the results of a theoretical study of the impact of spectral concentration. A well-known set of relationships for PV cell efficiency was modified to include the effect of the variation in internal quantum efficiency for different wavelengths, and then used to examine the impact of spectral concentration for materials with different bandgaps. The results suggest that spectral concentration leads to only a modest increase in PV conversion efficiency