This paper investigates the possibility of charging battery electric vehicles at workplace in Netherlands using solar energy. Data from the Dutch Meteorological Institute is used to determine the optimal orientation of PV panels for maximum energy yield in the Netherlands. The seasonal and diurnal variation in solar insolation is analyzed to determine the energy availability for EV charging and the necessity for grid connection. Due to relatively low solar insolation in Netherlands, it has been determined that the power rating of the PV array can be oversized by 30% with respect to power rating of the converter. Various dynamic EV charging profiles are compared with an aim to minimize the grid dependency and to maximize the usage of solar power to directly charge the EV. Two scenarios are considered – one where the EVs have to be charged only on weekdays and the second case where EV have to be charged all 7days/week. A priority mechanism is proposed to facilitate the charging of multiple EV from a single EV–PV charger. The feasibility of integrating a local storage to the EV–PV charger to make it grid independent is evaluated. The optimal storage size that reduces the grid dependency by 25% is evaluated

An approach to study the optical behavior of hydrogenated amorphous silicon solar cells with rough interfaces using computer modeling is presented. In this approach the descriptive haze parameters of a light scattering interface are related to the root mean square roughness of the interface. Using this approach we investigated the effect of front window contact roughness and back contact material on the optical properties of a single junction $\mathrm{a-}\mathrm{Si:H}$ superstrate solar cell. The simulation results for $\mathrm{a-}\mathrm{Si:H}$ solar cells with ${\mathrm{SnO}}_{\mathrm{2}}\mathrm{:F}$ as a front contact and ideal Ag, ZnO/Ag, and Al/Ag as a back contact are shown. For cells with an absorber layer thickness of 150–600 nm the simulations demonstrate that the gain in photogenerated current density due to the use of a textured superstrate is around $\text{2.3\hspace{0.05em}}{\mathrm{mA cm}}^{\mathrm{-2}}$ in comparison to solar cells with flat interfaces. The effect of the front and back contact roughness on the external quantum efficiency (QE) of the solar cell for different parts of the light spectrum was determined. The choice of the back contact strongly influences the QE and the absorption in the nonactive layers for the wavelengths above 650 nm. A practical Ag back contact can be successfully simulated by introducing a thin buffer layer between the n-type $\mathrm{a-}\mathrm{Si:H}$ and Ag back contact, which has optical properties similar to Al, indicating that the actual reflection at the n-type $\mathrm{a-}\mathrm{Si:H}/\mathrm{Ag}$ interface is smaller than what is expected from the respective bulk optical parameters. In comparison to the practical Ag contact the QE of the cell can be strongly improved by using a ZnO layer at the Ag back contact or an ideal Ag contact. The photogenerated current densities for a solar cell with a 450 nm thick intrinsic $\mathrm{a-}\mathrm{Si:H}$ layer with ZnO/Ag and ideal Ag are 16.7 and $\text{17.3\hspace{0.05em}}{\mathrm{mA cm}}^{\mathrm{-2}},$ respectively, compared to $\text{14.4\hspace{0.05em}}{\mathrm{mA cm}}^{\mathrm{-2}}$ for the practical Ag back contact. The effect of increasing the roughness of the contact interfaces was investigated for both superstrate and substrate types of solar cells. Increasing the roughness of the carrier electrode, i.e., the rough electrode on which the silicon cell structure is deposited, up to 35 nm leads to a strong increase in the photogenerated current density; for higher values of the interface roughness the photogenerated current density tends to saturate.