Heat-Recovery Solar Cell

Heat-recovery (HERC) solar cell-a concept of solar cells utilizing the heat for improving the power conversion efficiency-is presented. HERC solar cell, characterized by an absorber hotter than electrodes, recovers heat as electricity to have high conversion efficiency exceeding the detailed balance limit when carrier-energy filtering is employed. Being different from hot-carrier solar cells, HERC solar cell does not require fast carrier extraction within the thermalization time, which largely improves its feasibility (feasible even with Si). An increment in the conversion efficiency originates from thermoelectricity produced by the temperature difference. Requirements for materials of the filtering layers are also given based on a nonideal device simulation with the thermoelectric properties.