The comparison of solution processed organic photovoltaics with two roll-to-roll coated electron transport layers (ETL), as well as printed grid or solid back electrodes provides insight into the future of R2R fabricated architectures. The variation in performance of the R2R slot-die coated zinc oxide (ZnO) versus the tin oxide (SnO 2 ), showed a clear dependence on the spectrum of the illumination source. It was found that under indoor light conditions (200–1000 lux LED and fluorescent sources) the SnO 2 outperformed the ZnO with highest efficiencies near 13% and 10% respectively. This is in contrast to results obtained under 1 Sun (AM 1.5) in which the cells fabricated with a ZnO ETL had a higher power conversion efficiency than those prepared with SnO 2 . The results also confirm the significance of the layout of the printed silver back contact; in which cells with the grid structure outperformed those with full coverage by approximately 35% for ZnO and just under 10% for SnO 2 (all light conditions). The combination of a R2R coating and S2S printing process to prepare modules with 8 cells in series (PET/ITO/SnO 2 /PV2001:PCBM/PEDOT:PSS/silver grid) resulted in a PCE of 13.4% under indoor office light conditions.
1 February 2017 in Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells
This paper presents a parametric procedure to size a hybrid system consisting of renewable generation (wind turbines and photovoltaic panels) and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). To cope with the increasing installation of grid-scale BESS, an innovative, fast and flexible procedure for evaluating an efficient size for this asset has been developed. The tool exploits a high-fidelity empirical model to assess stand-alone BESS or hybrid power plants under different service stacking configurations. The economic performance has been evaluated considering the revenue stacking that occurs when participating in up to four distinct energy markets and the degradation of the BESS performances due to both cycle- and calendar-aging. The parametric nature of the tool enables the investigation of a wide range of system parameters, including novel BESS control logic, market prices, and energy production. The presented outcomes detail the techno-economic performances of a hybrid system over a 20-year scenario, proposing a sensitivity analysis of both technical and economic parameters. The case study results highlight the necessity of steering BESS investment towards the coupling of RES and accurate planning of the service stacking. Indeed, the implementation of a storage system in an energy district improves the internal rate of return of the project by up to 10% in the best-case scenario. Moreover, accurate service stacking has shown a boost in revenues by up to 44% with the same degradation.
The use of electrochemical cells is becoming more widespread, especially in the energy industry and battery energy storage systems (BESSs). As we continue to deploy BESSs, it becomes increasingly important for us to understand how these systems age and accurately predict their performance over time. This knowledge is essential for ensuring that the systems operate optimally and can be properly maintained. Since the structure of a BESS is different from a single electrochemical cell, the existing models at the cell level cannot predict and estimate the life of the BESS with suitable accuracy. Furthermore, the test protocols available at the cell level mostly cannot be executed at the BESS level for many reasons. Therefore, in this paper, a review of test protocols for building aging models for BESSs has been performed. After reviewing the protocols for a single electrochemical cell and addressing the differences between BESSs and cells, a review of the works performed on a larger scale has been carried out, and the possible ways for testing the BESS for aging models were investigated.