Evaluation of the energy conversion performance of different photovoltaic materials with measured solar spectral irradiance

Solar spectral irradiance distributions have a great impact on the photoelectric conversion performance of photovoltaic materials. By average photon energy, this paper assessed the practical conversion performance of ten types of photovoltaic materials based on the spectral measurements of Beijing and Changsha, China. Photon energy utilization efficiency was proposed to assess the practical conversion performance of photovoltaic materials at the same aperture area. Monocrystalline silicon had the best energy utilization efficiency when the spectrum is the red-rich or close to the reference spectrum. However, gallium arsenide would outperform it if the average photon energy exceeded 1.95 eV. Mismatch factor was used at the same rated output power of photovoltaic materials. It is found that the mismatch factor of perovskite with a 1.22 eV bandgap energy ranks the first place when the spectrum is the red-rich or close to the reference spectrum. However, the perovskite with a 1.83 eV bandgap energy has the optimal conversion performance at the average photon energy over 1.83 eV. Moreover, an ideal photovoltaic material with advanced properties was proposed for optimal performance with the regional spectra, which might provide useful instruction for photovoltaic industries to produce the most suitable photovoltaic material considering the annual regional spectrum.