JPS5896948A - Solar energy converter - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To suppress the temperature rise of a solar cell and consequently prevent the lowering of performance and the deterioration from occurring by a method wherein a heat collecting plate formed integrally with a heat collecting pipe and the amorphous silicon solar cell having the thickness, through which the solar rays can transmit, are faced against each other and arranged and constituted so as not to be brought into contact with each other. CONSTITUTION:The titled converter consists in providing a heat collecting pipe 2 and a heat collecting plate 3 contacting with the heat collecting pipe 2 within a transparent glass evacuated vessel 1 and furthermore arranging the amorphous silicon cells 4 having the thickness, through which the solar rays can transmit, on the vacuum vessel 1 at the locations opposing to the heat collecting plate 3 through vacuum space A. More particularly, the solar cell consists of an intrinsic (i-type) amorphous silicon layer 8, at both sides of which a transparent P type amorphous silicon layer 7 and a transparent N type amorphous silicon layer 9 are provided respectively, being provided with transparent conductive film layers 6 and 10 at their another both sides, provided on a glass substrate 5. Owing to the structure as described above, the temperature rise of the solar cells 4 is suppressed and the lowering of the performance and the deterioration is prevented from occurring and further better solar rays irradiation over the heat collecting plate 3 can be resulted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an energy converter that converts sunlight into electricity and heat.

2. Description of the Related Art A solar energy converter, which is one of the conventional thermal energy converters, is already well known, in which a solar cell is attached as an electrical converter to a heat collection plate of a solar heat collector. However, if the solar cell is made of monocrystalline silicon, approximately 3
Since it is 00μm thick, it absorbs all sunlight,
Or heat collection is limited by reflection.

Recently, a method of forming an amorphous S] thin film solar cell on a heat collecting plate has been considered, and some have been commercialized. However, with this method, the temperature of the heat collecting plate increases and the efficiency of thermal energy conversion increases, but when the temperature of the heat collecting plate rises, the temperature of the solar cell also increases, resulting in a decrease in the performance of the solar cell itself and deterioration. This causes a significant decrease in the efficiency of electrical energy conversion.

The present invention improves the conventional drawbacks by not bringing the solar cells into contact with the light collecting plate, without reducing or deteriorating the performance of the solar cells as described above.

Examples will be described below. FIGS. 1 and 2 show an example of the structure of the present invention. 1 is a transparent glass container with a vacuum inside to improve the heat collection effect. 2 is a heat collecting pipe that allows a heat medium such as water to pass through the inside;
Reference numeral 3 denotes a heat collecting plate, which is in contact with the heat collecting tube 2 so that heat can be conducted thereto. Reference numeral 4 denotes an amorphous Si solar cell, which faces the heat collecting plate 3 via a vacuum section. In addition, amorphous St
In the solar cell 4, the electrode on the light-receiving surface and the electrode on the back surface facing the light-receiving surface are each made into transparent electrodes, so that the heat collecting plate 3 can be efficiently irradiated with sunlight. Since it is separated from the plate 3 via a vacuum section, the temperature of the solar cell does not rise.

FIG. 3 shows the components of a solar cell. 5 is a glass substrate;
6 is a transparent conductive film layer, 7 is a p-type amorphous Si layer, 8 is an intrinsic i
9 is an amorphous Si layer, 9 is an n-type crystalline T layer, and JO is a transparent conductive film layer. Note that the p-type amorphous Si layer 7 and the n-type amorphous Si layer 9 may be interchanged. Light irradiation may be performed on either transparent conductive film. FIG. 4 shows the p-4-n type solar cells of the present invention and the conventional example.
This figure shows the difference in characteristics when A) is continuously irradiated for a long time. b) shows the changes in open circuit voltage and short circuit current when solar cells with a transparent insulating substrate-transparent conductive film-p-i-n-metal electrode structure are formed directly on a heat collecting plate as in the past. show. 2) indicates the open circuit voltage and short circuit current of the solar cell in the present invention. As is clear from FIG. 4, it is possible to prevent temperature rise, which is one of the causes of deterioration in the performance of solar cells, which is a major problem when exposed to sunlight for a long period of time. Regarding heat collection efficiency, there was almost no effect on efficiency with heat collectors of the same shape.

As described above, the present invention improves the drawbacks of conventional solar energy converters and is useful in the energy industry.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 and 2 are diagrams showing an example of the structure of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the structure of the amorphous St solar cell used in the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a structure example of the amorphous St solar cell used in the present invention. It is a graph comparing changes in performance when a battery and a conventional amorphous solar cell are irradiated with sunlight. 1... Transparent container, 2... Heat collection tube, 3... Heat collection plate,
4... Amorphous 81 Taiba battery, 5... Glass substrate, 6
...Transparent conductive film layer, 7...p-type amorphous t-layer, 8.
...Intrinsic n-type amorphous S1 layer, 9...n-type amorphous S1 layer,
lo...transparent Itu eyebrows.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A heat collecting plate that can conduct heat with the heat collecting pipe, and an amorphous 81-type battery that has enough friction to allow sunlight to pass through, are attached to one side of the heat collecting plate. A solar energy converter characterized in that one side of an amorphous Si solar cell is configured to face each other and not come into contact with each other. (2) A transparent conductive layer is provided on the light receiving side of the solar cell, and a transparent conductive layer is provided on the other side of the solar cell so as to face the light receiving side transparent conductive layer. The solar energy converter described in (1).