Enhance photoelectric efficiency of PV by optical-thermal management of nanofilm reflector

Crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells have advantages of zero pollution, large scale and high reliability. A major challenge is that sunlight wavelength with photon energy lower than semiconductor band gap is converted into heat and increase its temperature and reduce its conversion efficiency. Traditional cooling PV method is using water flowing below the modules to cool down PV temperature. In this paper, the idea is proposed to reduce the temperature of the module and improve the energy conversion efficiency of the module through the modulation of the solar spectrum. A spectrally selective nanofilm reflector located directly on the surface of PV is designed, which can reflect sunlight wavelength with low photon energy, and even enhance absorption of sunlight wavelength with high photon energy. The results indicate that nanofilm reflector can reduce spectral reflectivity integral from 9.0% to 6.93% in 400~1100 nm wavelength range, and improve spectral reflectivity integral from 23.1% to 78.34% in long wavelength range. The nanofilm reflector can reduce temperature of PV by 4.51°C and relatively improved energy conversion efficiency of PV by 1.25% when solar irradiance is 1000 W/m2. Furthermore, the nanofilm reflector is insensitive in sunlight's angle and polarization state, and be suitable for high irradiance environment.