Absorber Band Gap Affects the Operating Temperature of Solar Cells

Aleksi Kamppinen^a, Julianna Varjopuro^a, Heikki Palonen^a, Aapo Poskela^a, Juha A. Karhu^b, Anders V. Lindfors^b, Kati Miettunen^a

^aDepartment of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Turku, Vesilinnantie 5, 20500 Turku, Finland

^bFinnish Meteorological Institute, Erik Palmenin aukio 1, 00560 Helsinki, Finland

NIPHO25
Proceedings of International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics and Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO25)

Cagliari, Italy, 2025 June 9th - 10th

Organizers: Giulia Grancini, Daniela Marongiu and Aldo Di Carlo

Poster, Aleksi Kamppinen, 042
Publication date: 24th April 2025

Coupled optical, electrical and thermal modeling was applied to study heat generation in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) and its effect on device operation temperature in ambient conditions [1,2]. Operating temperature affects the power conversion efficiency of solar cells. Thus, varying outdoor conditions affect the power production directly via irradiance and indirectly via heating and cooling of the cells.

Importance of considering temperature effects for the power production estimation of PSCs is highlighted in the literature [3]. Heat generation in the cells may not be entirely avoided because the energy that is absorbed, but is not converted to electricity becomes heat. However, material properties (especially the absorber band gap) affect the amount of heat generation as was quantitatively predicted: notably, heat generation in the cell decreases with the increasing band gap [1].

Consequently, the larger band gap of the perovskite absorber was predicted to result in a lower operating temperature for the perovskite panel compared with the operating temperature of a comparable silicon panel [2]. Further, perovskite-specific model parameters for common (semi-)empirical panel temperature models were predicted to enable more accurate power production estimations for perovskite panels with the same tools that are applied with commercial silicon panels [2].

References:

[1] A. Kamppinen; H. Palonen; K. Miettunen, Self-Heating of Planar Perovskite Solar Cells Depending on Active Material Properties, ACS Applied Energy Materials 7, 10, 4324-4334 (2024).

[2] J. Varjopuro; A. Kamppinen; A. Poskela; J.A. Karhu; A.V. Lindfors; K. Miettunen, Computational Simulation of Perovskite and Silicon Solar Panel Operating Temperatures in Varying Ambient Conditions, Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 290, 113657 (2025).

[3] P. Lopez-Varo; M. Amara; S. Cacovich; A. Julien; A. Yaïche; M. Jouhari; J. Rousset; P. Schulz; J.-F. Guillemoles; J.-B. Puel, Dynamic temperature effects in perovskite solar cells and energy yield, Sustainable Energy Fuels 5, 21, 5523-5534 (2021).

Acknowledgements:

A.K. thanks Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, University of Turku Graduate School (UTUGS), the Finnish Foundation for Technology Promotion, and Lieto Savings Bank Foundation (project KESPV). J.V. and A.V.L. acknowledge funding for RealSolar project (358542, 358543), which is funded by the Strategic Research Council (SRC) established within the Research Council of Finland. K.M. thanks Research Council of Finland (project BioEST, 336577). J.A.K. thanks Fortum and Neste Foundation.

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