An integrated electrical enhancement strategy for high-efficiency solar photovoltaic cells

Photovoltaic (PV) cells' efficiency decreases significantly with rising operating temperatures. To address this, an integrated electrical enhancement strategy (IEES) is proposed, combining spectral-selective optical concentration, spectral matching, and passive thermal regulation. The approach centers on an asymmetric lens-walled compound parabolic concentrator (ALWCPC) coated with a spectrally selective film (SSF). This design simultaneously concentrates useable sunlight, filters out non-convertible infrared wavelengths, and utilizes the lens-walled structure as an integrated heat sink for passive cooling. Optical measurements showed the SSF reflects 95.5% of light within 380–1100 nm and transmits 84.0% within 1100–2500 nm, closely matching crystalline silicon's spectral response. Experimental results indicated that the SSF-equipped module (ALWCPC-S) outperformed a reflective-film module (ALWCPC-M), exhibiting steady-state temperature reductions of 7.0 °C and 5.4 °C at different incidence angles, with electrical output gains of 7.3% and 6.6%. A validated coupled optical-thermal-electrical model confirmed the system's dual functionality. Under identical conditions, the ALWCPC-S module's working temperature was 66.1 °C cooler than a non-concentrating PV cell, which is attributed to the passive cooling effect of its lens-walled heat sink via natural convection. Compared to conventional solar concentration aided by specular reflection, spectral-selective optical concentration reduced the temperature of PV cells by 18.2-70.7 °C at geometric concentrations ranging from 4 × to 10 × .