• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.97-102
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• 2019

Bifacial and semitransparent hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin-film solar cells in p-i-n configuration were prepared with front and rear transparent conducting oxide (TCO) electrodes using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition method. Fluorine-doped tin oxide and tin-doped indium oxide films were used as front and rear TCO contacts, respectively. Film thickness of intrinsic a-Si:H absorber layers were controlled from 150 nm to 450 nm by changing deposition time. The dependence of performance characteristics of solar cells on the front and rear illumination direction were investigated. For front illumination, gradual increase in the short-circuit current density (J_SC) from 10.59 mA/㎠ to 14.19 mA/㎠ was obtained, whereas slight decreases from 0.83 V to 0.81 V for the open-circuit voltage (V_OC) and from 68.43% to 65.75% for fill factor (FF) were observed. The average optical transmittance in the wavelength region of 380 ~ 780 nm of the solar cells decreased gradually from 22.76% to 15.67% as the absorber thickness was changed from 150 nm to 450 nm. In case of the solar cells under rear illumination condition, the J_SC increased from 10.81 to 12.64 mA/㎠ and the FF deceased from 66.63% to 61.85%, while the V_OC values were maintained at 0.80 V with increasing the absorber thickness from 150 nm to 450 nm. By optimizing the deposition parameters, a high-quality bifacial and semitransparent a-Si:H solar cell with 350 nm-thick i-a-Si:H absorber layer exhibited the conversion efficiencies of 7.69% for front illumination and 6.40% for rear illumination, and average visible optical transmittance of 17.20%.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.11-18
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• 2004

A solar concentrator, named KIERDISH II, was built at KIER in order to investigate the feasibility of high temperature solar energy application system. The constructed concentrator is a dish type solar concentrator with a focal length of 4.68m and a diameter of 7.9m. To successfully operate KIERDISH II, optimal design of the absorber is very important and flux density distribution has to be known. The focal flux density distribution on the receiver was measured. We have observed the shape and size of flux images and evaluated percent power within radius. Flux density distribution is usually measured by a CCD(charge coupled device) camera and a radiometer. In this paper we present a flux mapping method to estimate the characteristic features of the flux density distribution in the focal region of solar concentrator. The minimum radius of receiver is found to be 0.15m and approximately 90% of the incident radiation is intercepted by receiver aperture.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.60-67
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• 2011

A photovoltaic/thermal(PVT)solar system is the solar technology that allows for simultaneous conversion of solar energy into both electricity and heat. This paper compared the performance of PVT system with a conventional PV module and solar collector and analyzed electrical and thermal efficiency of PVT system in terms of solar irradiance and inlet temperature of the working fluid. Based on the experimental data, thermal and electrical efficiencies of the glazed PVT system were 57.9% and 14.27% under zero reduced temperature condition which were lower by 13.6% than the solar thermal absorber plate and by 0.08% than the PV module respectively. For the unglazed PVT system, it had lower thermal efficiency than the solar thermal absorber plate but higher electrical performance than the PV module due to the cooling effect by the working fluid. However, total efficiency of the glazed PVT system was 72.2% which was higher than combined efficiencies of the solar collector and PV module. Besides, total efficiency of the PVT system would be much higher if calculated based on unit area.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.65 no.10
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• pp.1694-1696
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• 2016

Present thin film solar cells with hydrogenated amorphous silicon oxide (a-SiO:H) as an absorber suffer from low fill factor(FF) of 61~64 [%] in spite of its benefits related to high open circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$). Since degraded quality of a-SiO:H absorber by alloying with oxygen can affect the FF, we aimed to achieve high photosensitivity by minimizing $CO_2$ gas addition. Improving optical gap($E_{opt}$) has been attained by strong hydrogen dilution combined with lowering substrate temperature down to 100 [$^{\circ}C$]. Small amount of the $CO_2$ was added in order to disturb microcrystalline formation by high hydrogen dilution. The developed a-SiO:H has high photosensitivity (${\sim}2{\times}10^5$) and high $E_{opt}$ of 1.85 [eV], which contributed to attain remarkable FF of 74 [%] and high $V_{oc}$ (>1 [V]). As a result, high power conversion efficiency of 7.18 [%] was demonstrated by using very thin absorber layer of only 100 [nm], even though we processed all experiment at extremely low temperature of 100 [$^{\circ}C$].

• Solar Energy
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.81-89
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• 2000

In the present study, the characteristics of conductive and convective heat transfer occurred in a circular absorber of PTC (parabolic trough concentrator) for medium temperature solar energy utility were numerically investigated. A circular tube was considered as an absorber and the shape of PTC modeled in this study was based on the system that was installed in Korea Institute of Energy Research. Not only convection inside the tube but also conduction through the wall of the tube were analyzed, simultaneously. Circumferentially non-uniform heat flux that was simulated from the non-uniform solar disc model proposed by Jose was applied as thermal boundary condition on the tube surface. And, hydrodynamically fully developed laminar velocity profile was used as the inlet boundary condition and it was assumed that the working fluid was water. And, local heat fluxes at the interface of the tube and the working fluid were calculated for different wall thickness and thermal conductivity of the tube at various Reynolds number. Based on the results, the effects of thermal conduction of the tube on the local heat transfer were investigated.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.87-92
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• 2011

The heat from PV modules should be removed for better electrical performance, and can be converted into useful thermal energy. A photovoltaic-thermal(PVT)module is a combination of PV module with a solar thermal collector which forms one device that converts solar radiation into electricity and heat simultaneously. The performance of the PV/Thermal combined collector module is directly influenced by solar radiation that also has an effect on PV module temperature. It is also has believe that the energy performance of PV/T collector is related to absorber design as well as PV module temperature. The existing study has been paid to the PV/Thermal combined collector module with circle tube absorbers. The aim of this study is to analyze the experimental performance of the PV/Thermal combined collector rectangular tube absorbers according to solar radiation. The experimental result show that the average thermal and electrical efficiencies of the PVT collector were 43% and14.81% respectively. Solar radiation is one of the most influential factors to determine the energy performance of PVT collector, but from a certain level of solar radiation the PVT collector receives on, its efficiencies began to decrease.

• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.227-237
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• 2017

The continuous increase of emission rates of green house gases and the effects on global warming added a new dimension to the problem of substituting the petroleum and its derivatives by environment friendly and sustainable energy sources for the world. Solar and wind energy appear at the top of the list of renewable of high potential, widely available, of dominated technology and well accepted. Brazil is one of the few countries in the world that receives number hours of sunshine exceeding 3,000 hours per year with a daily average of 4.5 to 6 kWh. However, this potential is largely unexplored and poorly tapped. The number of renewable systems implanted in Brazil has grown in recent years, but still insignificant when compared, for example, with Germany and Spain among others. This paper presents the results of an optical study on small concentration solar collector with evacuated tube enveloping the absorber and internal reflective surface fixed on the bottom part of the evacuated tube. The designed collector has a 2D geometrical concentration ratio between 2.455 and 4.91. The orientation of the solar collector, the ratio of the radius of the receiver to the radius of the absorber, the incidence angle for each period of the year, the collector inclination angle, the aperture angle of the reflective surface, concentration and optical efficiency were determined. The ray traces and flux distribution on the absorber of the evacuated tube solar collector were determined by using the program Ray Optics Simulation. The optical efficiency varies during the year according to the solar declination. For the periods were the solar declination is close to zero the efficiencies are maximum, and the variation during the day is around 25.88% and 99.9%. For the periods were the solar declination is maximum the efficiencies are minimum, and the variation during the day is around 23.78% and 91.79%.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.221-225
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• 2009

A solar thermal collector is a solar collector specifically intended to collect heat: that is, to absorb sunlight to provide heat. A flat plate is the most common type of solar thermal collector, and is usually used as a solar hot water panel to generate solar hot water. A flat plate collector consists basically of an insulated metal box with a glass or a plastic cover and a dark-colored copper absorber plate. Solar radiation is absorbed by the copper absorber plate and transferred to water that circulates through the collector in copper tubes. Ultrasonic welding is an industrial technique whereby high-frequency ultrasonic acoustic vibrations are locally applied to work pieces being held together under pressure to create a solid-state weld. In this study, we developed solar collector ultrasonic welding machine with digital controlled power supply and tested various welding conditions such as welding pressure, welding amplitude, welding speed. Welding speed was considered in 2~12m/min. The width of ultrasonic welds was increased with welding amplitude by 2.2~2.5mm. The fracture load of ultrasonic welds showed 20% higher than domestic products.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.294-297
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• 2008

In this paper, a novel non-vacuum technique is described for the fabrication of a $CuInSe_2$ (CIS) absorber layer for thin film solar cells using a low-cost precursor solution. A solution containing Cu- and Inrelated chemicals was coated onto a Mo/glass substrate using the Doctor blade method and the precursor layer was then selenized in an evaporation chamber. The precursor layer was found to be composed of CuCl crystals and amorphous In compound, which were completely converted to chalcopyrite CIS phase by the selenization process. Morphological, crystallographic and compositional analyses were performed at each step of the fabrication process by SEM, XRD and EDS, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.318.1-318.1
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• 2013

Nowadays Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) solar cell is attracting a lot of attention as a strong alternative to CIGS solar cell due to nontoxic and inexpensive constituent elements of CZTS. From various processes for the fabrication of CZTS solar cell, solution-based deposition of CZTS thin films is well-known non-vacuum process and many researchers are focusing on this method because of large-area deposition, high-throughput, and efficient material usage. Typically the solution-based process consists of two steps, coating of precursor solution and annealing of the precursor thin films. Unlike vacuum-based deposition, precursor solution contains unnecessary elements except Cu, Zn, Sn, and S in order to form high quality precursor thin films, and thus the precise control of precursor thin film preparation is essential for achieving high efficient CZTS solar cells. In this work, we have investigated the effect of preparation condition of CZTS precursor thin films on the performance of CZTS solar cells. The composition of CZTS precursor solution was controlled for obtaining optimized chemical composition of CZTS absorber layers for high-efficiency solar cells. Pre-annealing process of the CZTS precursor thin films was also investigated to confirm the effect of thermal treatment on chemical composition and carbon residues of CZTS absorber layers. The change of the morphology of CZTS precursor thin film by the preparation condition was also observed.