Energy 144 (2018) 490e500

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

A detailed study on loss processes in solar cells

Ao Wang, Yimin Xuan*
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, No. 200 Xiaolingwei Road, 210094 Nanjing, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Only a small part of the incident solar energy converts to the electrical power in photovoltaic devices.
Available online 29 December 2017 The majority of the energy loss contributes to the heat generation in devices and thus leads to a
temperature rise, causing an inevitable impact on the performance of photovoltaic devices. Hence, loss
Keywords: processes in solar cells play very important roles in solar-electric conversion process. This paper
Solar cell systematically studies both the intrinsic and extrinsic losses in solar cells. Energy distributions of solar
Loss process
cells with different kinds of parameters are presented to characterize the different kinds of loss
Sensitivity
processes in detail. The sensitivities of loss processes to the structural and operating parameters of
Efficiency
solar cells such as external radiative efficiency, solid angle of absorption and operating temperature are
discussed, for the parameters have significant impact on the loss processes. The external radiative
efficiency, solid angle of absorption (e.g., the concentrator photovoltaic system), series resistance and
operating temperature are demonstrated to greatly affect the loss processes. Furthermore, based on
the calculated thermal equilibrium states, the temperature coefficients of solar cells versus the
bandgap Eg are plotted.
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction highest efficiency of photovoltaic devices theoretically [5]. Hirst

Solar energy photovoltaic technology has developed rapidly
for the past years and researchers over the world have been
working hard on improving the efficiency and reducing the cost
of photovoltaic devices. However, the efficiency of photovoltaic
devices grows slowly in recent years. Many groups have been
studying the limiting efficiency and the factors that limit the
efficiency of photovoltaic devices, trying to find effective ways
to reduce the energy loss in the process of photovoltaic energy
conversion and increase the final output efficiency [1e9].
Shockley and Queisser developed the detailed balance
approach with generalized Planck function to derive the
maximum power point and give the elementary detailed balance
limit of efficiency, which only involved the fundamental loss
processes [1]. Henry published a graphical method, which clearly
demonstrated the distribution of various intrinsic losses for both
single and multiple energy gap ideal solar cells and gave the
maximum work done by per absorbed photon [2]. Wurfel pub-
lished the thermodynamic limitations to solar energy conversion
based on the second principle of thermodynamics, which is the
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ymxuan@njust.edu.cn (Y. Xuan).
and Ekins-Daukes studied the mechanisms of five intrinsic loss
processes quantitatively and provided a mathematical and
graphical demonstration [10]. The majority of papers discussed
the fundamental (intrinsic) loss processes of photovoltaic devices.
In recent years, more and more groups have been studying the full
loss processes, including the intrinsic and extrinsic losses, for the
extrinsic loss also plays an important role in photovoltaic energy
conversion [11e15]. And as well known, the heat generated in
solar cells will lead a temperature rise, which unavoidably causes
an efficiency drop [16e20]. Thus, when studying the loss pro-
cesses and output parameters of photovoltaic devices, the impact
of heat generation must be taken into consideration. Dupre  et al.
presented a thermal model for photovoltaic devices, involving
intrinsic loss, extrinsic loss and heat generation [11,12,14]. The
temperature of solar cells was derived based on the calculation of
heat generation and a given global heat transfer coefficient [12].
As discussed above, loss processes are very important in the
process of solar-electric conversion, and so far a number of
research efforts have been devoted to them. However, in a real
solar cell, these loss processes are dependent on the different
kinds of parameters, including the structure parameters and
operating parameters of the cell. While little work has been
concentrated on the control ability of parameters on different loss
processes in solar cells.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.12.058
0360-5442/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 A. Wang, Y. Xuan / Energy 144 (2018) 490e500 491

This paper studies the loss processes in photovoltaic devices across the bandgap and finally their energy is transferred to
depending on different kinds of parameters, such as external phonons in the device, contributing to heat generation instead of
radiative efficiency (ERE), solid angle of absorption, resistances electricity.
and operating temperature. Energy distributions of a crystalline
silicon (c-Si) solar cell and a CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite (C-P) solar ZEg
cell are presented to characterize the intrinsic and extrinsic losses PBelow ¼ n ð1  Rc  Tc ÞPFDðEÞ$EdE (2)
in detail, calculated by a thermal model based on the model 0
proposed by Dupre  et al. [11,12,14]. Energy distributions of solar
cells with different concentration ratios and external radiative The thermalization loss originates from the fraction of the
efficiencies (EREs) are also plotted versus the bandgap Eg. Among photons transmit into the cells that have the energy larger than the
the losses, below Eg loss, thermalization loss, angle mismatch loss bandgap. The free carriers excited by these photons release their
and non-radiative recombination loss are demonstrated playing energy in excess of the bandgap (E-Eg) to the phonons, contributing
the leading roles in energy loss processes. Considering that the to heat generation [12].
parameters of the cells greatly affect the loss processes in
Z∞
photovoltaic devices, the sensitivities of loss processes to struc-  
PThermalization ¼ n ð1  Rc  Tc ÞPFDðEÞ$ E  Eg dE (3)
ture parameters (e.g., external radiative efficiency, solid angle of
absorption, resistances, etc.) and operating parameters (e.g., Eg
operating temperature) are studied. Furthermore, different kinds
The emission loss originates from the photon emission of the
of parameters are demonstrated to have different control abilities
cells as a result of radiative recombination.
on different loss processes in photovoltaic devices. Meanwhile,
heat generation resulting from the loss processes will cause a Z∞
considerable temperature rise. Taking it into consideration, the PEmission ¼ Eg nðE; Ta ; qVc ; Ue ÞdE (4)
efficiency of a cell drops remarkably with the decrease of
Eg
the photocurrent and voltage, especially for the concentrator
photovoltaic (CPV) system if the heat generation is not well
where Ta is the temperature of the cell (absorber), Vc is the voltage
dissipated. Suppressing the heat generation to reduce the oper-
across the cell and Ue is the solid angle of emission. Here the total
ating temperature is very important to the optimization of output
photon emission flux n(E, T, m, U) is introduced [2,10]:
efficiency. Based on the calculated thermal equilibrium states, the
temperature coefficients of solar cells versus the bandgap Eg are 2U E2
plotted. This paper is structured as follows. Firstly, the general nðE; T; m; UÞ ¼ Em
(5)
c h eð kT Þ  1
2 3
thermal model for solar cells is introduced in Section 2, including
the intrinsic loss and extrinsic loss. In Section 3, the detailed an-
where T is the temperature of the emitter, m is the chemical
alyses of intrinsic and extrinsic loss processes are conducted,
potential, c is the speed of light, h is Planck's constant and k is
respectively. Effects of different parameters on the performance of
Boltzmann's constant. Thus Eq. (4) is expressed as:
a cell are further studied in Section 4. Finally, the conclusions are
drawn and some suggestions are presented to help researchers Z∞ Z∞
Eg
design high-efficiency solar cells. PEmission ¼ Eg nðE; Ta ; qV; Ue ÞdE ¼ $q nðE; Ta ; qV; Ue ÞdE
q
Eg Eg
2. General model for solar cells
Eg  
z $Jemit Ue ; Ta ; Eg ; V
2.1. Intrinsic losses in solar cells q
(6)
Loss processes in solar cells consist of two parts: intrinsic
losses (fundamental losses) and extrinsic losses. Intrinsic losses where Jemit(U, T, E, V) refers to the photocurrent loss caused by
are unavoidable in single bandgap solar cells, even if in the radiative recombination, defined as:
idealized solar cells [10]. In this paper, intrinsic losses are divided  
into six processes: the optical loss, the below Eg loss, the ther- 2Uq  2  qV  E
Jemit ðU; T; E; VÞ ¼ E kT þ 2Ek2 2
T þ 2k3 3
T exp
malization loss, the emission loss, the Carnot loss and the angle c2 h3 kT
mismatch loss, and the model in this paper is based on the model (7)
presented by Dupre  et al. [11,12,14].
The optical loss corresponds to the fraction of incident energy The Carnot loss corresponds to the energy that needs to be
sacrificed for doing work between the hot reservoir (the Sun) and
of the Sun's radiation that is reflected or transmits through the
cells. the cold reservoir (a solar cell) [10]. This process leads to a voltage
loss DVCarnot, and the corresponding heat generation is:
Z∞
POptical ¼ n ðRc þ Tc ÞPFDðEÞ$EdE (1) PCarnot ¼ J DVCarnot (8)
0
where J is the output photocurrent of the cell.
The angle mismatch loss corresponds to the energy loss caused
where n is the concentration ratio of the cells (n suns), Rc and Tc
by the mismatch between the solid angles of absorption and
are the reflectance and transmittance of the cells, respectively.
emission [10], leading to a voltage loss DVAngle, and the corre-
PFD(E) is the AM1.5 photon flux density as a function of photon
sponding heat generation is:
energy E [12].
The below Eg loss corresponds to the fraction of the photons PAngle ¼ J DVAngle (9)
transmit into the cells that have the energy below the bandgap Eg.
These photons don't have enough energy to excite free electrons
492 A. Wang, Y. Xuan / Energy 144 (2018) 490e500

2.2. Extrinsic losses in solar cells Taking all the loss processes mentioned above into consider-
ation, the output photocurrent density of a cell can be written as:
Besides the intrinsic losses, extrinsic losses, such as non-
radiative recombination (NRR) loss, series resistance (Rse) loss,
shunt resistance (Rsh) loss and parasitic absorption loss [12,15], J ¼ Jph  ðJemission þ Jnonemission Þ  Jshunt
also play a very important role in loss processes in single bandgap Z∞
solar cells. Different from intrinsic losses, they are avoidable [10]. 1 V þ J$Rse
¼q ð1  Rc  Tc ÞPFDðEÞdE  $J 
For simplicity, parasitic absorption is ignored in the following ERE emission Rsh
Eg
calculation. Fig. 1 shows the equivalent circuit diagram of a solar
cell. (10)
To study the extrinsic loss processes quantitatively, the concept
of external radiative efficiency (ERE) is defined to describe the where Jph is the maximum photocurrent density, Jshunt is the
photocurrent loss caused by recombinations in a solar cell [21,22]. photocurrent loss caused by shunt resistance and V is the output
The term ERE refers to the fraction of recombinations that leads to voltage.
photon emission from a cell [22]. The rest fraction of the re- Non-radiative recombination (NRR) losses consist of photocur-
combinations (1-ERE) refers to the non-radiative recombinations rent loss (NRR-J) and voltage loss (NRR-V), originating from
taking place inside a solar cell, and thus ERE ¼ Jemission/ different mechanisms: Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination,
(Jemission þ Jnon-emission), where Jemission and Jnon-emission refer to Auger recombination, inner imperfection, etc [12]. The heat gen-
the photocurrent losses caused by radiative recombination eration corresponding to the NRR-J loss is [14]:
and non-radiative recombination, respectively. In practical
solar cells, structural defects or impurities are very common, and  
JNRRJ Eg Eg 1
they generally result in the recombinations of the electron- PNRRJ ¼ Eg $ ¼ $Jnonemission ¼ $  1 Jemission
q q q ERE
hole pairs, especially the non-radiative recombinations (e.g.,
Shockley-Read-Hall recombination), reducing the carriers (11)
lifetime or suppressing the cell efficiency [23]. For the random-
Here Jemission ¼ Jemit (Ue, Ta, Eg, V þ J$Rse), thus:
ness and unpredictability of the defects, it is difficult to analyze
the effects of structural defects quantitatively and accurately. To
study the loss processes in solar cells systematically, in this paper,  
Eg 1 2Ue q
the concept of external radiative efficiency is used to quantita- PNRRJ ¼ $ 1 $ 2 3
q ERE c h
tively analyze the recombination processes in solar cells. The ERE   
qðV þ J$Rse Þ  Eg
of a solar cell is similar to the concept of external quantum Eg 2 kTa þ2Eg k2 Ta 2 þ2k3 Ta 3 exp
efficiency (EQE) in a light-emitting diode [22]. With this defini- kTa
tion, the effects of radiative recombinations and non-radiative (12)
combinations in a cell can be analyzed quantitatively and
To derive the heat generation corresponding to the voltage
comprehensively, including the effects of structural defects on
loss, DVNRR is needed. Using eq. (10), the maximum power point
recombination processes.
of the cell can be found. Based on the research of Dupre et al.
[11,14], VMPP-Angle and VMPP-NRR can be calculated respectively
with the specific parameters, which will be discussed subse-
quently. Thus, DVMPP-NRR ¼ VMPP-Angle - VMPP-NRR, and the heat
generation corresponding to the NRR-V loss at the maximum
power point is:

PNRRV ¼ JMPP $DVMPPNRR (13)

Series loss corresponds to the energy loss that caused by
the series resistance in solar cells. This series resistance can also
include the contact resistance, and leads to the heat generation
corresponding to the voltage loss (DVse ¼ JRse) in the form of Joule
heating [11]:

Pseries ¼ J 2 Rse (14)

Shunt loss corresponds to the energy loss that caused by
the shunt resistance in solar cells. Its loss process can be assimi-
lated to recombination process, leading to the heat generation
corresponding to the photocurrent loss [11]:

JShunt Eg V þ J$Rse
PShunt ¼ Eg $ ¼ $ (15)
q q Rsh

where JShunt is the current of the shunt path.

Fig. 1. Equivalent circuit diagram of a solar cell showing the load, series resistance Based on the discussion above, the thermal equilibrium
(Rse), shunt resistance (Rsh) and the voltage across the cell (Vc). equation at the maximum power point is:
 A. Wang, Y. Xuan / Energy 144 (2018) 490e500 493

3.1.1. Intrinsic loss processes of a crystalline silicon solar cell

PIncident ¼ POptical þ PBelow þ PThermalization þ PEmission þ PCarnot
þ PAngle þ PNRRJ þ PNRRV þ PSeries þ PShunt þ POutput
where POutput ¼ VMPP·JMPP is the output electrical power at the
maximum power point and PIncident is the incident power density of
solar illumination. The total heat generation in a cell is:
PHeat ¼ PBelow þ PThermalization þ PCarnot þ PAngle þ PNRRJ
þ PNRRV þ PSeries þ PShunt
The output efficiency of the cell at room temperature (298.15 K)
is h ¼ POutput/PIncident.
Heat generation due to the losses results in a temperature rise.
Considering that the thermal radiative heat exchange between the
cell and the environment is negligible [11,12,14], the cell's heat
equilibrium between the heat generation and the heat lost via
conduction and convection between the cell and the environment
can be approximately written as [12]:
PHeat ¼ hðTa  Tenv Þ
where h is a global heat transfer coefficient and Tenv is the
temperature of the environment. PHeat is a function of Ta and
thus the final operating state of the cell needs to be calculated
iteratively. With the final heat generation PHeat-f and operating
temperature Ta-f, the output efficiency of the cell operating at the
final thermal equilibrium state is: hf ¼ POutput-f/PIncident.
3. Detailed analysis of loss processes in solar cells
3.1. Analysis of intrinsic loss processes
To discuss the intrinsic losses of solar cells quantitatively, the
reflectance Rc and the transmittance Tc of the cell are set to zero,
ERE is set to 1, and resistances of the cell (Rse and Rsh) are ignored.
Then eq. (10) is written as:
Z∞ Z∞
 
J¼q PFDðEÞdE  Jemission ¼ q PFDðEÞdE  Jemit Ue ; Ta ; Eg ; V
Eg Eg
The intrinsic loss processes of a crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar
cell at different concentration ratios (n ¼ 1 and 5) with the
bandgap of 1.1246 eV at 298.15 K (25  C) are presented in Table 1,
(16)
under an AM1.5 solar illumination (PIncident ¼ 1000.37 W/m2,
calculated by the integral of PFD(E)). The errors D in the table
equal to the differences between the standard values (Jph, Vmax and
PIncident, where Vmax ¼ Eg/q is the maximum voltage can be built in
the cell) and the sums of the values of different processes, which
prove the model of high accuracy. The result indicates that the
dominant intrinsic losses are below Eg loss, thermalization loss,
(17) and angle mismatch loss. They take up the majority of the incident
energy, and the angle mismatch loss decreases as the solid angle
of absorption increases, improving the output efficiency (from
33.52% of n ¼ 1e35.27% of n ¼ 5), which agrees with the detailed
balance theory. When the concentration ratio increases, the
output current density and voltage both increase. Table 1 also
indicates that a large amount of solar energy is converted into
heat generation.
3.1.2. Intrinsic loss processes of a CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite solar cell
(18) The intrinsic loss processes of a CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite (C-P)
solar cell with the bandgap of 1.639 eV at 298.15 K (25  C) are
presented in Table 2. Compared with the c-Si solar cell in Table 1,
the C-P solar cell has larger bandgap Eg, and thus, it has lower
photocurrent density, higher voltage, larger below Eg loss and
smaller thermalization loss.
Fig. 2 shows the energy distributions of a c-Si solar cell and a
C-P solar cell. Fig. 3 illustrates the efficiencies of ideal solar cells
varying with the bandgap Eg only considering the intrinsic
losses at different concentration ratios. In Fig. 3, the three lines
distinguish with each other obviously at the bandgaps lower than
about 2.0 eV, which is because that for the intrinsic losses, the
concentration ratio mainly has the impact on the angle mismatch
loss, and as discussed later, for the bandgaps larger than about
2.0 eV, the angle mismatch loss is becoming negligible gradually.
And that's why the line of higher concentration ratio is higher
than that of lower concentration ratio.
For ideal solar cells considering only the intrinsic losses (Fig. 3),
the relative error is d ¼ (|POutput þ PHeat þ PEmission - PIncident|)/
PIncident. For calculation, the sum of the energy distributions
expressed in the bracket agrees well with the incident solar
energy, and the relative errors are all below 107.

(19)
The solid angles of emission (Ue) and absorption (Ua) of the cell
from the earth to the sun without concentration in this paper are:
Ue ¼ p and Ua ¼ 6.8  105 sr, respectively.
3.2. Analysis of intrinsic and extrinsic loss processes
By taking all loss processes into consideration, eq. (10) is used
to derive the necessary parameters. Firstly, VMPP and JMPP are

Table 1
Energy distribution and corresponding parameters of a c-Si solar cell with different concentration ratios at room temperature.

Crystalline silicon solar cell, Eg ¼ 1.1246 eV

Concentration ratio: n ¼ 1 Concentration ratio: n ¼ 5

Current Voltage Power /PIncident Current Voltage Power /PIncident

A/m2 V W/m2 % A/m2 V W/m2 %

Jph/Vmax/PIncident 436.25 1.1246 1000.37 100 2181.28 1.1246 5001.85 100

PBelow 194.60 19.45 973.01 19.45
PThermalization 315.16 31.51 1575.78 31.50
PEmission 13.68 15.39 1.54 65.17 73.29 1.47
PCarnot 0.0623 26.33 2.63 0.0623 131.83 2.64
PAngle 0.2687 113.54 11.35 0.2286 483.74 9.67
POutput 422.57 0.7936 335.35 33.52(h) 2116.11 0.8337 1764.20 35.27(h)
D 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
PHeat 649.63 64.94 3164.36 63.26
494 A. Wang, Y. Xuan / Energy 144 (2018) 490e500

Table 2
Energy distribution and corresponding parameters of a C-P solar cell with different concentration ratios at room temperature.

CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite solar cell, Eg ¼ 1.639 eV

Concentration ratio: n ¼ 1 Concentration ratio: n ¼ 5

Current Voltage Power /PIncident Current Voltage Power /PIncident

A/m2 V W/m2 % A/m2 V W/m2 %

Jph/Vmax/PIncident 244.33 A 1.639 1000.37 100 1221.67 1.639 5001.85 W 100

PBelow 456.38 45.62 2281.88 45.62
PThermalization 143.53 14.35 717.65 14.35
PEmission 4.87 7.99 0.80 23.58 38.65 0.77
PCarnot 0.106 25.26 2.52 0.1055 126.40 2.53
PAngle 0.271 64.89 6.49 0.2305 276.16 5.52
POutput 239.46 1.262 302.32 30.22(h) 1198.09 1.303 1561.11 31.21(h)
D 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
PHeat 690.06 3402.09

calculated finding the maximum power point (POut-

by
put ¼ VMPP·JMPP) with the chosen parameters: Rse ¼ 1 U cm2 and
Rsh ¼ 250 U cm2. The resistance values are chosen to clearly illus-
trate the impact of resistances on loss processes of a solar cell, and
cases of different resistance values are calculated subsequently to
further discuss the impact. Noting that, in some recent studies, the
solar cells have EREs as high as about 102 or even higher [22e25],
thus in this paper, cases of different EREs (ERE ¼ 1, 102 and 105)
are calculated to illustrate the impact of external radiative effi-
ciency on loss processes. For simplicity, the reflectance Rc is set to
0.05 and the transmittance Tc is set to zero.
To calculate the Carnot loss, the voltage loss DVCarnot ¼ Eg
eVCarnot is needed [11]. Rse ¼ 0, Rsh ¼ ∞, Ua as the solid angle of
emission and in the radiative limit (ERE ¼ 1), eq. (10) is rewritten
as:
 
J ¼ Jph  Jemission ¼ Jph  Jemit Ua ; Ta ; Eg ; V
Then we can derive the voltage (VCarnot-MPP) at the maximum
power point, and thus the voltage loss due to Carnot loss process is
DVCarnot-MPP ¼ Eg eVCarnot-MPP.
To calculate the angle mismatch loss, the voltage loss DVAn-
gle ¼ VCarnot -VAngle is needed [11]. The same conditions as in Carnot
loss above are used except that the solid angle of emission is now
set to Ue, and eq. (10) is rewritten as:
 
J ¼ Jph  Jemission ¼ Jph  Jemit Ue ; Ta ; Eg ; V (21)
Then we can derive the voltage (VAngle-MPP) at the maximum
power point, and thus the voltage loss due to angle mismatch loss is
DVAngle-MPP ¼ VCarnot-MPP -VAngle-MPP.
To calculate the non-radiative recombination loss, the voltage
loss DVNRR ¼ VAngle eVNRR is needed [11]. The same conditions as in
angle mismatch loss above are used except that the impact of EREs
(cases of ERE ¼ 1, 102 and 105) is considered, and eq. (10) is
rewritten as:
1 1  
J ¼ Jph  $J ¼ Jph  $J Ue ; Ta ; Eg ; V (22)
ERE emission ERE emit
Then we can derive the voltage (VNRR-MPP) at the maximum
power point, and thus the voltage loss due to NRR loss is DVNRR-
MPP ¼ VAngle-MPP eVNRR-MPP.
(20) Cases of c-Si solar cell with different EREs (1, 102 and 105) at
room temperature are presented in Tables 3 and 4. Compared with
the energy distribution in the radiative limit (ERE ¼ 1), the output
power decreases significantly with the decrease of ERE, down to
23.84% (ERE ¼ 102) and 17.58% (ERE ¼ 105) from 27.92%
(ERE ¼ 1). The ERE has little impact on the loss processes except
the NRR loss, and almost all the increased power loss (i.e., NRR
loss) is converted into heat generation, which will further increase
the temperature of the cell, reducing the output efficiency as a

Fig. 2. Energy distributions of a c-Si solar cell: (a) and (b), and a C-P solar cell: (c) and Fig. 3. Efficiency of ideal solar cells only considering the intrinsic losses at different
(d). The concentration ratios in (a) and (c) are n ¼ 1 and in (b) and (d) are n ¼ 5. concentration ratios (n ¼ 1,5 and 10).
 A. Wang, Y. Xuan / Energy 144 (2018) 490e500 495

Table 3
Energy distribution and corresponding parameters of a c-Si solar cell with EREs as 1 and 102 at room temperature.

result. Besides the optical loss process, in a real solar cell (i.e.,
EREs1), the photocurrent loss is mainly caused by NRR loss
process and shunt loss process. NRR loss process also contributes
to an important component of voltage loss. Thus, it is very
important to improve the ERE of a solar cell to achieve higher
output current density and output voltage.
To further study the impact of resistances on loss processes,
cases of different resistances are presented in Table 5 to be
compared with that in Table 3(ERE ¼ 102). The series loss is
proportional to the series resistance Rse according to Eq. (14). Thus
reducing Rse by half (from 1 U cm2 to 0.5 U cm2) will also reduce
the series loss by half from 13.88 W/m2 to 6.97 W/m2 (i.e., reduce
the voltage loss due to series resistance by half, from 0.0373 V to
0.0187 V), having little impact on output current JMPP. The photo-
current loss JShunt is inversely proportional to the shunt resistance
Rsh (Eq. (15)). Thus double Rsh (from 250 U cm2 to 500 U cm2) will
reduce JShunt by half from 27.04 A/m2 to 13.55 A/m2, increasing the
output current JMMP significantly and having little impact on
output voltage VMMP. In general, to achieve higher output current
density and output voltage, it is necessary to increase the shunt
resistance and reduce the series resistance, respectively.
To study loss processes in a concentrated photovoltaic (CPV)
system, cases of different concentration ratios (n ¼ 2 and 5) are
presented in Table 6 to be compared with the case of n ¼ 1 in
Table 3, and the transmittance of the concentrator is set to 0.95 in
this calculation. For angle mismatch loss process, increasing the
concentration ratio means increasing solid angle of absorption
(Ua) of the cell, which reduces the voltage loss DVAngle (from
0.2687 V of n ¼ 1 to 0.2514 V of n ¼ 2 and 0.2285 V of n ¼ 5), also
demonstrated by generalized Planck equation and Boltzmann

Table 4
Energy distribution and corresponding parameters of a c-Si solar cell with ERE as 105 at room temperature.
496 A. Wang, Y. Xuan / Energy 144 (2018) 490e500

Table 5
Energy distribution and corresponding parameters of a c-Si solar cell with different resistances at room temperature.

approximation: DVAngle ¼ Tak/q·ln(Ue/Ua) [8]. For a high concen-
tration ratio, though the angle mismatch loss PAngle decreases
(from 10.01% of n ¼ 1e8.29% of n ¼ 5), the high photocurrent
density leads to the increase of some other losses (NRR-J loss and
series resistance loss, which are related to the photocurrent
density J), leading to a larger heat generation (i.e., a higher tem-
perature rise of the cell), which will further reduce the output
efficiency. Thus, reducing the angle mismatch loss via increasing
Ua is not effective if the heat generation is not well dissipated.
Besides, according to Eq. (14), the enlarged photocurrent density J
will increase the voltage loss DVse due to series resistance (from
0.0373 V of n ¼ 1 to 0.1814V of n ¼ 5), reducing the output voltage
(from 0.6401 V of n ¼ 1 to 0.5507 V of n ¼ 5). A CPV system is
designed to achieve much more energy from solar irradiation in
unit area of solar cells, with the ultimate purpose of saving money.
However, concentrated solar irradiation results in a large amount
of heat generation, and if not dissipated timely, it will cause a
dramatic temperature rise, reducing the output efficiency greatly
and finally making the ultimate purpose impossible.
All the study above doesn't involve the impact of heat genera-
tion (i.e., temperature rise). However, temperature is a crucial
limiting factor to increasing the output efficiency of solar cells.
Substitute the calculated parameters above into eq. (17) and (18)
iteratively, and the final thermal equilibrium state will be
reached. Thus, we can get the final operating parameters (Ta-f, PHeat-
f, POutput-f, and hf) of the cell at the thermal equilibrium state. The
final thermal equilibrium states of c-Si solar cell with different
concentration ratios (n ¼ 1 and 2) are presented in Table 7 to be
compared with the states at room temperature in Table 3(n ¼ 1)
and Table 6(n ¼ 2).
Heat generation causes a considerable temperature rise, near
to 100 K in the case of non-CPV c-Si solar cell (considering the
global heat transfer coefficient as h ¼ 10 W m2 K1 in this paper).
And for lower ERE, there will be a higher Ta-f. In calculation, the
impact of the cell's temperature on bandgap Eg is considered
approximately with dEg/dT ¼ 0.27 meV/K for c-Si around 300 K
[14]. When temperature increases, Eg decreases, and thus the
maximum photocurrent density increases. However, at the same
time, the photocurrent loss caused by emission and NRR is
enlarged. When the temperature rise is not significant (e.g., 75 K
of n ¼ 1), the increase of the photocurrent loss is smaller than that
of maximum photocurrent density. However, when the temper-
ature rise is significantly high (e.g., 153 K of n ¼ 2, or higher tem-
perature rise of higher n), the increase of the photocurrent loss
will be bigger than that of the maximum photocurrent density,
which means the output photocurrent density (JMPP-f) at thermal
equilibrium state will be lower than that at room temperature,
especially for the CPV solar cells. For the case of higher

Table 6
Energy distribution and corresponding parameters of a c-Si solar cell with different concentration ratios at room temperature.
 A. Wang, Y. Xuan / Energy 144 (2018) 490e500 497

Table 7
Energy distribution and corresponding parameters of a c-Si solar cell with different concentration ratios at thermal equilibrium state.

Fig. 4. Energy distribution of solar cells in radiative limit at room temperature. The transmittance Tc and the reflectance Rc are both set to zero. The concentration ratios are n ¼ 1 in
(a), n ¼ 3 in (b) and n ¼ 100 in (c), respectively.

concentration ratio, the output photocurrent density decreases both the output photocurrent density and the output voltage.
significantly.
As for the voltage losses, the components due to Carnot loss,
4. Effects of cells' parameters on the loss processes
angle mismatch loss and NRR loss are all enlarged for they are
proportional to the temperature of the cell, and the component due
Energy distributions of solar cells with different concentration
to series resistance varies with output photocurrent density, for it is
ratios (n ¼ 1, 3, and 100) and EREs are presented in Fig. 4 (ERE ¼ 1)
proportional to J2MPP-f. In addition, Vmax ¼ Eg/q decreases with the
and Fig. 5 (ERE ¼ 102), respectively. The relative errors of the
rise of temperature. As a result of all the effects, the output voltage
calculations are all below 2% at different concentration ratios (n ¼ 1,
VMPP-f at thermal equilibrium state drops a lot than that at room
3, 100). For the case of ERE ¼ 1, the average relative errors over the
temperature.
bandgaps at different concentration ratios are 0.36% (n ¼ 1), 0.25%
In general, taking the temperature rise into consideration,
(n ¼ 3) and 0.62% (n ¼ 100), respectively. For the case of ERE ¼ 102,
output efficiency of a solar cell drops remarkably especially for the
the average relative errors are 0.34% (n ¼ 1), 0.27% (n ¼ 3) and 0.55%
CPV system if the heat generation is not well dissipated, reducing
(n ¼ 100), respectively. When considering the temperature rise of

Fig. 5. Energy distribution of solar cells considering the non-radiative recombination at room temperature. The transmittance Tc and the reflectance Rc are both set to zero. The
concentration ratios are n ¼ 1 in (a), n ¼ 3 in (b) and n ¼ 100 in (c), respectively.
498 A. Wang, Y. Xuan / Energy 144 (2018) 490e500

Fig. 6. Efficiency of solar cells at room temperature and at thermal equilibrium state. In calculation, n ¼ 1, Ta ¼ 298.15 K and Ta-f is the temperature at final thermal equilibrium state.

Fig. 7. Efficiency of solar cells with different concentration ratios at thermal equilibrium state (n ¼ 1, 2 and 3). Ta-f is the temperature at final thermal equilibrium state.

solar cells (Figs. 6 and 7), our calculations still agree well with the
incident solar energy, with all the relative errors below 2%. For the
case of n ¼ 1, the average relative errors over the bandgaps with
different EREs are 0.35% (ERE ¼ 1), 0.32% (ERE ¼ 102) and 0.26%
(ERE ¼ 105), respectively. For the case of n ¼ 2, the average relative
errors are 0.28% (ERE ¼ 1) and 0.27% (ERE ¼ 102), respectively. For
the case of n ¼ 3, the average relative errors are 0.34% (ERE ¼ 1) and
0.27% (ERE ¼ 102), respectively.
To design a photovoltaic device, the bandgap of material should
be the first parameter to be considered, for the majority of the
energy loss (below Eg loss and thermalization loss) depends on the
bandgap. The below Eg loss and thermalization loss cover more
than half of the total incident power for cases of different con-
centration ratios and EREs at all bandgaps. And these two loss
processes only relate to the bandgap Eg.
In some recent studies, increasing the absorption angle (e.g., in a
CPV system) is proposed as a common approach to reduce the angle
mismatch loss [10,14]. A CPV system with a low concentration ratio
(e.g., n ¼ 3 in Figs. 4 and 5) will not reduce the angle mismatch loss
remarkably. When the concentration ratio is high enough (e.g.,
n ¼ 100 in Figs. 4 and 5), the angle mismatch loss is greatly sup-
pressed. However, this theoretically feasible method will result in
another problem: the temperature rise. When multiplying the
absorption angle Ua, which means the solar cell will collect much
more solar energy in unit area and much more heat will be
generated, there will be a significant temperature rise in the cell if
the cooling system is not well enhanced. In our calculation, taking
the heat generation into consideration, PAngle in the case of n ¼ 2
increases from 12.45% to 13.09%, rather than decreases, compared
with the case of n ¼ 1, and what's even worth is that due to the
temperature rise caused by the increased absorption angle, the
output power POutput decreases from 19.28% to 13.61% for a c-Si
solar cell. And in Figs. 6 and 7, the efficiency of solar cells drops
remarkably with the significant temperature rise, even though the
concentration ratios are very low. So, reducing the angle mismatch
loss via increasing the absorption angle is not effective unless the
problem of temperature rise is well solved, which is also the critical
problem of a CPV system.
In addition to the effect on angle mismatch loss process, in
Figs. 4 and 5, concentration ratio is demonstrated to have effects on
series loss process, shunt loss process, emission loss process
(ERE ¼ 1) and NRR loss process (EREs1). For a CPV system, the
photocurrent density is enhanced, and as a result, the series loss is
enhanced remarkably. Meanwhile, due to the enhanced photocur-
rent density, the voltage loss of the cell is enhanced, and according
to Eq. (15), the shunt loss is thus reduced, negligible for high
 A. Wang, Y. Xuan / Energy 144 (2018) 490e500
concentration ratio. For solar cells at high concentration ratio (e.g.,
n ¼ 100), the output photocurrent density is very high, and thus
according to Eq. (11) and (12), the emission loss is greatly enhanced
for solar cells in radiative limit (ERE ¼ 1), while for real solar cells
(EREs1), the NRR-J loss is greatly enhanced and the NRR-V loss
becomes negligible. Because of the greatly enhanced losses, the
output power of high-concentration-ratio photovoltaic system is
reduced significantly as presented in Figs. 4(c) and 5(c).
The effect of shunt resistance mainly reflects in PShunt. According
to Eq. (15), PShunt is inversely proportional to Rsh, and thus for large
Rsh, small JShunt will be achieved (i.e., large JOutput will be achieved).
Here, we must emphasize the effect of series resistance on loss
processes. Series resistance plays a significant role in loss processes,
mainly reflecting in PSeries, PEmission and PNRR-J. PSeries ¼ J2·Rse. So for
the photovoltaic system having high photocurrent density (e.g.,
high-concentration-ratio photovoltaic system), reducing the series
resistance is very necessary. According to Eq. (11) and (12), a high
series resistance will lead to a high Jemission, resulting in the high
emission loss (ERE ¼ 1) and NRR-J loss (EREs1), especially when
the cell operates at a high operating temperature. In our calcula-
tion, the NRR-J loss can reach up to 17% for the c-Si CPV system
considering the temperature variation (Rse ¼ 0.5 U cm2,
Rsh ¼ 500 U cm2 and n ¼ 5), and the loss will be much higher if Rse is
increased. Fig. 6 indicates that, for a lower ERE, the efficiency of
solar cells drops a lot compared with cells in radiative limit
(ERE ¼ 1) at room temperature. Taking the heat generation into
consideration, the operating temperature of the cells with lower
ERE grows much higher than that of the cells in radiative limit,
greatly reducing the output efficiency. Thus being infinitely close to
the radiative limit is what we should be working for.
The temperature coefficients (TC) of solar cells with different
external radiative efficiencies (ERE ¼ 1, 102 and 105) are calcu-
lated by Eq. (23) [26], based on the final thermal equilibrium
states, and plotted in Fig. 7. Solar cells in radiative limit (ERE ¼ 1)
have the biggest temperature coefficients, and solar cells with
lower ERE have smaller temperature coefficients. For a commer-
cial c-Si solar cell, ERE is about 105 [14], and in our calculation,
the temperature coefficient of a c-Si solar cell with ERE ¼ 105 is
about 4.3‰ in Fig. 8, which agrees well with the temperature
coefficient of commercial c-Si solar cells (4‰e5‰). In addi-
tion, solar cells of larger bandgap have bigger temperature co-
efficients, indicated in Fig. 8.
Fig. 8. Temperature coefficient of solar cells with different external radiative effi-
ciencies (ERE ¼ 1, 102 and 105).
499
 
hf  h
TCð=KÞ ¼   (23)
Taf  298:15 h
Based on the preceding discussion, a conclusion is drawn that
temperature rise is a very important limiting factor in the efficiency
of a certain solar cell. For solar cells with bandgap Eg varying from
1 eV to 3 eV, we can see the main energy losses consist of the below
Eg loss, the thermalization loss and the angle mismatch loss. And all
these three kinds of losses contribute to heat generation, causing a
significant temperature rise, which greatly limits the efficiency of
solar cells. The concentration ratio (or Ua), series resistance and
external radiative efficiency are also the key limiting factors in
improving the efficiency of a solar cell. The series resistance will
cause a significant energy loss when the photovoltaic system has a
high photocurrent density. For the photovoltaic system working at
a high temperature, the external radiative efficiency needs to be
enhanced to reduce the significant non-radiative recombination
loss.
5. Conclusions
This paper has systematically studied different loss processes of
solar cells considering the temperature rise, including intrinsic and
extrinsic losses. The heat generation due to the loss processes re-
sults in a significant temperature rise about 100 K, which will be
higher for CPV solar cells, further exacerbating the energy loss and
reducing the efficiency of the cells by 5e15%. According to the
priority to increase the efficiency of a cell, loss processes are listed
here to be addressed: (1) the below Eg loss; (2) the thermalization
loss; (3) the angle mismatch loss; (4) the non-radiative recombi-
nation loss; (5) the series loss. Among the loss processes, the below
Eg loss and the thermalization loss play dominant roles in energy
loss processes. These two kinds of loss processes are unavoidable in
traditional single bandgap solar cells for the mismatch between the
broad incident solar spectrum and the single-bandgap absorption
of a cell [10,12]. To increase the number of available photons and
enhance the available energy of per absorbed photon, the effective
way is to eliminate the mismatch between the broad incident solar
spectrum and the single-bandgap absorption. The technology of
multiple energy gap solar cells is considered as a promising solu-
tion. The angle mismatch loss is considered as the third important
loss process. Increasing the absorption angle is a commonly used
method to suppress this loss process. Non-radiative recombination
loss and series loss are extremely significant for the high-
concentration-ratio photovoltaic system, covering 15%e40% of the
total incident solar energy for the cells with bandgap below 2.0 eV
in the case of 100 suns. The series resistance needs to be decreased
to suppress the series loss. Considering that, the non-radiative
recombination process mainly consists of surface recombination,
Auger recombination and Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination
processes, the key to reduce the non-radiative recombination loss is
to suppress these three recombination processes. SRH recombina-
tion is negligible compared with the other two recombinations, and
it can be reduced by careful growth of crystal [23,27]. Auger
recombination is exacerbated with the increase of doping con-
centration in solar cells [28,29]. So it is an effective way to suppress
the Auger recombination by controlling the doping concentration.
As for the surface recombination, it is associated with the surface
area of a cell. For a cell with high surface area, it is particularly
significant. To suppress the surface recombination, surface passiv-
ation is a feasible method, e.g., the tetramethylammonium hy-
droxide (TMAH) etch [30].
In addition to the loss processes, the effects of different
500 A. Wang, Y. Xuan / Energy 144 (2018) 490e500
parameters on the performance of the cell are studied. Among the
parameters, operating temperature, series resistance and external
radiative efficiency play very important roles. The efficiency of
high-concentration-ratio solar cells (e.g., 100suns) will be lower
than 10% if these parameters are not well optimized while the ef-
ficiency of non-CPV solar cells with the same parameters is higher
than twice of that. Without the effective cooling system, the effi-
ciency of a cell drops about 5% compared with the efficiency at
room temperature. For the high-concentration-ratio solar cells, it
drops even more. An effective cooling system must be applied to
reduce the operating temperature of the cell. A novel cooling
method, passive radiative cooling strategy, has been proved a
promising way to cool the solar cell and improve the efficiency
[31,32]. For a CPV system, the series loss due to series resistance is
exacerbated remarkably. It dissipates about 10% of the incident
solar energy in the case of 100 suns. Thus, sufficient efforts must be
concentrated on reducing the series resistance during the design
and fabrication of solar cells. Moreover, the external radiative effi-
ciency is a very important parameter of a solar cell, for a high ERE
indicates a low internal recombination loss. Compared with a cell
that has a low ERE (105), the efficiency of a cell in radiative limit
(ERE ¼ 1) can be improved by 10e20%. One of the ways to improve
the ERE is to suppress the non-radiative recombination, which has
been discussed above. Another way is to recycle the photons
emitted by recombination in the cell. For example, textured surface
design has been demonstrated an effective strategy for photon
recycling [27,29].
We hope this study may help researchers design high-efficiency
solar cells. And for the following researchers interested in loss
processes of solar cells, we hope this paper could be a compre-
hensive and detailed reference.
Acknowledgments
This work has been supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant No. 51336003).
References
[1] Shockley W, Queisser HJ. Detailed balance limit of efficiency of p-n junction
solar cells. J Appl Phys 1961;32(3):510e9.
[2] Henry CH. Limiting efficiencies of ideal single and multiple energy gap
terrestrial solar cells. J Appl Phys 1980;51(8):4494e500.
[3] Wurfel P, Ruppel W. Upper limit of thermophotovoltaic solar-energy con-
version. IEEE Trans Electron Dev 1980;27(4):745e50.
[4] Araújo GL, Martí A. Absolute limiting efficiencies for photovoltaic energy
conversion. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cell 1994;33(2):213e40.
[5] Wurfel P. Thermodynamic limitations to solar energy conversion. Physica E
2002;14(1e2):18e26.
[6] Markvart T. Thermodynamics of losses in photovoltaic conversion. Appl Phys
Lett 2007;91(6):064102.
[7] Tsakalakos L, Hirst LC, Ekins-Daukes NJ. Quantifying intrinsic loss mechanisms
in solar cells: why is power efficiency fundamentally limited? SPIE Solar
Energy Technol Int Soc Optics Photon 2010;7772:777211.
[8] Singh GK. Solar power generation by PV (photovoltaic) technology: a review.
Energy 2013;53:1e13.
[9] Da Y, Xuan Y, Li Q. From light trapping to solar energy utilization: a novel
photovoltaicethermoelectric hybrid system to fully utilize solar spectrum.
Energy 2016;95:200e10.
[10] Hirst LC, Ekins-Daukes NJ. Fundamental losses in solar cells. Prog Photovolt
2011;19(3):286e93.
[11] Dupre  O. Physics of the thermal behavior of photovoltaic devices. 2015.
[12] Dupre  O, Vaillon R, Green MA. A full thermal model for photovoltaic devices.
Sol Energy 2016;140:73e82.
[13] Kaushika N, Rai A. An investigation of mismatch losses in solar photovoltaic
cell networks. Energy 2007;32(5):755e9.
[14] Dupre  O, Vaillon R, Green M. Thermal behavior of photovoltaic devices.
Springer International Publishing; 2017.
[15] Shang A, Li X. Photovoltaic devices: opto-electro-thermal physics and
modeling. Adv Mater 2017;29(8).
[16] Liu SH, Simburger EJ, Matsumoto J, Iii AG, Ross J, Nocerino J. Evaluation of
thin-film solar cell temperature coefficients for space applications. Prog
Photovolt Res Appl 2005;13(2):149e56.
[17] Pavanello D, Virtuani A, Friesen G. Overview of temperature coefficients of
different thin film photovoltaic technologies. In: Proc. 25th EU PVSEC; 2010.
p. 4248e52.
[18] Koehl M, Heck M, Wiesmeier S, Wirth J. Modeling of the nominal operating
cell temperature based on outdoor weathering. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cell
2011;95(7):1638e46.
[19] Kim N, Kim D, Kang H, Park Y-G. Improved heat dissipation in a crystalline
silicon PV module for better performance by using a highly thermal con-
ducting backsheet. Energy 2016;113:515e20.
[20] Noro M, Lazzarin RM. Solar cooling between thermal and photovoltaic: an
energy and economic comparative study in the Mediterranean conditions.
Energy 2014;73:453e64.
[21] Rau U. Reciprocity relation between photovoltaic quantum efficiency and
electroluminescent emission of solar cells. Phys Rev B 2007;76(8).
[22] Green MA. Radiative efficiency of state-of-the-art photovoltaic cells. Prog
Photovolt Res Appl 2012;20(4):472e6.
[23] Ciszek T. Controlled samples for silicon defect and impurity studies. Golden,
CO (United States): National Renewable Energy Lab; 1995. p. 42e5.
[24] Warmann EC, Flowers C, Lloyd J, Eisler CN, Escarra MD, Atwater HA. Design of
photovoltaics for modules with 50% efficiency. Energy Sci Eng 2017;5(2):
69e80.
[25] Geisz JF, Steiner MA, García I, Kurtz SR, Friedman DJ. Enhanced external
radiative efficiency for 20.8% efficient single-junction GaInP solar cells. Appl
Phys Lett 2013;103(4):041118.
[26] Emery K, Burdick J, Caiyem Y, Dunlavy D, Field H, Kroposki B, et al. Temper-
ature dependence of photovoltaic cells, modules and systems. In: Photovoltaic
Specialists Conference; 1996. p. 1275e8.
[27] Miller OD, Yablonovitch E, Kurtz SR. Strong internal and external lumines-
cence as solar cells approach the ShockleyeQueisser limit. IEEE J Photovolt
2012;2(3):303e11.
[28] Kerr MJ, Cuevas A. General parameterization of Auger recombination in
crystalline silicon. J Appl Phys 2002;91(4):2473e80.
[29] Karakasoglu I, Wang KX, Fan S. Optical-electronic analysis of the intrinsic
behaviors of nanostructured ultrathin crystalline silicon solar cells. ACS
Photon 2015;2(7):883e9.
[30] Oh J, Yuan H-C, Branz HM. An 18.2%-efficient black-silicon solar cell achieved
through control of carrier recombination in nanostructures. Nat Nanotechnol
2012;7(11):743e8.
[31] Zhu L, Raman A, Wang KX, Anoma MA, Fan S. Radiative cooling of solar cells.
Optica 2014;1(1):32e8.
[32] Raman AP, Anoma MA, Zhu L, Rephaeli E, Fan S. Passive radiative cooling
below ambient air temperature under direct sunlight. Nature
2014;515(7528):540e4.