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Recent Advances in Solar Cells and Photovoltaics

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A2: Solar Energy and Photovoltaic Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2024 | Viewed by 5116

Special Issue Editors

Department of Photonics, Electronics and Light Engineering, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Bialystok University of Technology, Wiejska 45D, 15-351 Białystok, Poland
Interests: photovoltaic; solar energy; optical radiation detection; optoelectronic sensors; smart and adaptive systems; operation of photovoltaic power systems; light sources
Department of Electrical Engineering, Bialystok University of Technology, 15-351 Bialystok, Poland
Interests: energy efficiency; lighting technologies; solar energy; daylighting
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Lublin University of Technology, Nadbystrzycka 38 A, 20-618 Lublin, Poland
Interests: the use of ion techniques to modify the electrical properties of semiconductors, especially silicon and gallium arsenide; the thermal stability of electrical parameters in terms of the possibility of application in microelectronics and photovoltaic cells; modern switchgear; monitoring and control systems used in energy distribution systems; improvement of power supply reliability; reducing greenhouse gas emissions

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, new technologies for obtaining energy from renewable sources have been used worldwide on an increasingly large scale. This has allowed a significant reduction in the emissions of harmful substances into the environment. At the same time, an increase in the cost of fossil fuels has been observed, particularly visible in the years 2021–2022, and the costs of photovoltaic power plants are gradually falling. Rising electricity prices are making renewable energy sources more and more economically viable. Renewable energy sources are thus becoming an increasingly important part of the electricity system. Moreover, the average efficiency of new installations is increasing. Over the past decade, photovoltaic cells have increased their efficiency by an average of 0.6% per year. This is due to the use of new technologies, e.g., bifacial modules and PERC, among others.

The works presented in this Special Issue should concern issues related to materials for photovoltaics, photovoltaic systems, PV energy management and PV grid integration. Experts in this field are encouraged to share their latest discoveries in the form of original research papers.

Dr. Jacek Kusznier
Prof. Dr. Maciej Zajkowski
Prof. Dr. Paweł Wȩgierek
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • solar cells
  • materials for photovoltaics
  • nanomaterials for solar cells
  • perovskite solar cells
  • organic solar cells
  • flexible photovoltaics
  • BIPV
  • photovoltaic systems
  • PV energy management
  • forecasting of PV power production
  • AI-based PV monitoring system
  • PV grid integration
  • modern power electronic converters for PV system
  • new technologies for PV systems
  • solar hybrid systems

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 12787 KiB  
Article
Application of Artificial Intelligence Algorithms in Multilayer Perceptron and Elman Networks to Predict Photovoltaic Power Plant Generation
by Grzegorz Drałus, Damian Mazur, Jacek Kusznier and Jakub Drałus
Energies 2023, 16(18), 6697; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16186697 - 19 Sep 2023
Viewed by 731
Abstract
This paper presents the models developed for the short-term forecasting of energy production by photovoltaic panels. An analysis of a set of weather factors influencing daily energy production is presented. Determining the correlation between the produced direct current (DC) energy and the individual [...] Read more.
This paper presents the models developed for the short-term forecasting of energy production by photovoltaic panels. An analysis of a set of weather factors influencing daily energy production is presented. Determining the correlation between the produced direct current (DC) energy and the individual weather parameters allowed the selection of the potentially best explanatory factors, which served as input data for the neural networks. The forecasting models were based on MLP and Elman-type networks. An appropriate selection of structures and learning parameters was carried out, as well as the process of learning the models. The models were built based on different time periods: year-round, semi-annual, and seasonal. The models were developed separately for monocrystalline and amorphous photovoltaic modules. The study compared the models with the predicted and measured insolation energy. In addition, complex forecasting models were developed for the photovoltaic system, which could forecast DC and AC energy simultaneously. The complex models were developed according to the rules of global and local modeling. The forecast errors of the developed models were included. The smallest values of the DC energy forecast errors were achieved for the models designed for summer forecasts. The percentage forecast error was 1.95% using directly measured solar irradiance and 5. 57% using predicted solar irradiance. The complex model for summer forecasted the AC energy with an error of 1.86%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Solar Cells and Photovoltaics)
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23 pages, 9624 KiB  
Article
Time Series Forecasting for Energy Production in Stand-Alone and Tracking Photovoltaic Systems Based on Historical Measurement Data
by Mateusz Sumorek and Adam Idzkowski
Energies 2023, 16(17), 6367; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16176367 - 02 Sep 2023
Viewed by 1312
Abstract
This article presents a time series analysis for predicting energy production in photovoltaic (PV) power plant systems, namely fixed and solar-tracking ones, which were located in the north-east of Poland. The purpose of one-day forecasts is to determine the effectiveness of preventive actions [...] Read more.
This article presents a time series analysis for predicting energy production in photovoltaic (PV) power plant systems, namely fixed and solar-tracking ones, which were located in the north-east of Poland. The purpose of one-day forecasts is to determine the effectiveness of preventive actions and manage power systems effectively. The impact of climate variables affecting the production of electricity in the photovoltaic systems was analyzed. Forecasting models based on traditional machine learning (ML) techniques and multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural networks were created without using solar irradiance as an input feature to the model. In addition, a few metrics were selected to determine the quality of the forecasts. The preparation of the dataset for constructing the forecasting models was discussed, and some ways for improving the metrics were given. Furthermore, comparative analyses were performed, which showed that the MLP neural networks used in the regression problem provided better results than the MLP classifier models. The Diebold–Mariano (DM) test was applied in this study to distinguish the significant differences in the forecasting accuracy between the individual models. Compared to KNN (k-nearest neighbors) or ARIMA models, the best results were obtained for the simple linear regression, MLPRegressor, and CatBoostRegressor models in each of the investigated photovoltaic systems. The R-squared value for the MLPRegressor model was around 0.6, and it exceeded 0.8 when the dataset was split and separated into months. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Solar Cells and Photovoltaics)
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9 pages, 1285 KiB  
Communication
Low-Cost Passivated Al Front Contacts for III-V/Ge Multijunction Solar Cells
by Olivier Richard, Artur Turala, Vincent Aimez, Maxime Darnon and Abdelatif Jaouad
Energies 2023, 16(17), 6209; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16176209 - 26 Aug 2023
Viewed by 737
Abstract
Improving the performances and reducing costs of III-V multijunction solar cells are crucial in aerospatial energy systems and in terrestrial concentrator modules. We attempted to achieve both objectives by implementing non-ohmic metal/semiconductor interface contacts on the front surface of III-V/Ge triple-junction solar cells. [...] Read more.
Improving the performances and reducing costs of III-V multijunction solar cells are crucial in aerospatial energy systems and in terrestrial concentrator modules. We attempted to achieve both objectives by implementing non-ohmic metal/semiconductor interface contacts on the front surface of III-V/Ge triple-junction solar cells. We demonstrate the feasibility of this concept for this type of solar cell by a simple evaporation of Al only either on the GaAs contact layer or the AlInP window. The best results were obtained when sulfur passivation by (NH4)2Sx was conducted on the GaAs contact layer. This allowed for a reduction in reverse saturation dark current density by one order of magnitude and a slight increase in Voc of almost 20 mV under 1 sun illumination relative to a reference device with Pd/Ge/Ti/Pd ohmic contacts. However, poor performances were observed at first under concentrated sunlight. Further annealing the solar cells with Al front metallization resulted in the reduction of Voc to the same level as the reference solar cell but allowed for good performances under high illumination. Indeed, an efficiency over 34% was observed at 500 suns light intensity both for Al and Pd/Ge/Ti/Pd contacted solar cells. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Solar Cells and Photovoltaics)
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15 pages, 3300 KiB  
Article
Performance of Cs-Doped Carbon-Based Perovskite Solar Cells in Ambient Environment
by Tanzeela Yousaf, Nadia Shahzad, Abdul Sattar, Muhammad Ali Tariq, Naveed Hussain, Zuhair S. Khan, Sofia Javed, Muhammad Imran Shahzad and Diego Pugliese
Energies 2023, 16(12), 4748; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16124748 - 15 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1495
Abstract
The development of organometal halide-based perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has made remarkable progress in photovoltaics. The commercialization of PSCs is still significantly limited, owing to their poor stability and the high material cost of a hole transport layer (HTL) and metal electrodes. To [...] Read more.
The development of organometal halide-based perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has made remarkable progress in photovoltaics. The commercialization of PSCs is still significantly limited, owing to their poor stability and the high material cost of a hole transport layer (HTL) and metal electrodes. To counter these issues, a carbon-based HTL and noble metal-free PSCs are being used. In this work, the effect of Cs-doping on perovskite film morphology and device performance has been systematically studied because the Cs+ and Br ions-doping has proved to be a good choice to improve the stability of PSCs in combination with a carbon electrode. The results showed that when the Cs-doping concentration in perovskite film, MA1−xCsxPb(I1−yBry)3, was equal to x = 0.09, there was a substantial change in the morphological and optoelectronic properties of perovskite films. The grain size of perovskite films was improved from 70 nm (x = 0.00 control) to 170 nm (x = 0.09 Cs-doped), reducing grain boundaries. Moreover, the trap states were additionally passivated resulting in improved radiative recombinations in the perovskite film. The device fabrication was carried out in a controlled dry glovebox, with relative humidity < 40% using carbon as a counter electrode. As a result, Cs-doped PSCs showed a significant increase in efficiency (5.27%) compared to control PSCs (1.55%). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Solar Cells and Photovoltaics)
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