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Among the parameters determining the efficiency of an organic solar cell, the open-circuit voltage ($V_\text{OC}$) is the one with most room for improvement. Existing models for the description of $V_\text{OC}$ assume that photogenerated…

While the quiet Sun magnetic field shows only little variation with the solar cycle, long-term variations cannot be completely ruled out from first principles. We investigate the potential effect of quiet Sun magnetism on spectral solar…

The space missions MOST, COROT and Kepler are going to provide us with high-precision optical photometry of solar-like stars with time series extending from tens of days to several years. They can be modelled to obtain information on…

Dark matter captured by interaction with electrons inside the Sun may annihilate via long-lived mediator to produce observable gamma ray signals. We utilize solar gamma ray flux measurements from the Fermi Large Area Telescope and High…

Antimony sulfide (Sb2S3) is a promising candidate as an absorber layer for single-junction solar cells and the top subcell in tandem solar cells. However, the power conversion efficiency of Sb2S3-based solar cells has remained stagnant over…

As photovoltaic power is expanding rapidly worldwide, it is imperative to assess its promise under future climate scenarios. While a great deal of research has been devoted to trends of mean solar radiation, less attention has been paid to…

In this paper, we develop an approximate wide-bandwidth upper bound to the absorption enhancement in arrays of metaparticles, applicable to general wave-scattering problems and motivated here by ocean-buoy energy extraction. We show that…

This technical note aims at optimizing the concentration ratio of multi-faceted focusing heliostats implemented into a solar tower power plant. The ideal shape of a heliostat located off-axis in the field is known to be the local section of…

Due to the increasing proportion of distributed photovoltaic (PV) production in the generation mix, the knowledge of the PV generation capacity has become a key factor. In this work, we propose to compute the PV plant maximum power starting…

Silicon solar cells dominate the solar cell market with record lab efficiencies reaching almost 26%. However, after 60 years of research, this efficiency saturated close to the theoretical limit for silicon, and radically new approaches are…

We construct updated solar models with different sets of solar abundances, including the most recent determinations by Asplund et al. (2009). The latter work predicts a larger ($\sim 10%$) solar metallicity compared to previous measurements…

A simple thermodynamic argument related to a (weakly absorbing) finite dielectric slab illuminated by sunlight- originally suggested by Yablonovich- leads to the conclusion that the absorption in a dielectric can at best be increased by a…

In this article, we investigate the effect of prolonged light exposure on silicon heterojunction solar cells. We show that, although light exposure systematicallyimproves solar cell efficiency in the case of devices using intrinsic and…

Photosynthesis is central to Earth's biosphere and a prime candidate for sustaining complex life on habitable exoplanets, yet a thermodynamically consistent treatment of the work potential of stellar radiation at planetary surfaces is still…

Helioseismology has revealed the internal density and rotation profiles of the Sun. Yet, knowledge of its magnetic fields and meridional circulation is confined much closer to the surface, and latitudinal entropy gradients are below…

The proton-proton ($pp$) fusion chain dominates the neutrino production from the Sun. The uncertainty of the predicted $pp$ neutrino flux is at the sub-percent level, whereas that of the best measurement is $\mathcal{O}(10\%)$. In this…

Due to their tailorable optical properties, organic semiconductors show considerable promise for use in indoor photovoltaics (IPVs), which present a sustainable route for powering ubiquitous "Internet-of-Things" devices in the coming…

Determinations of the solar oxygen content relying on the neutral forbidden transition at 630 nm depend upon the nickel abundance, due to a Ni I blend. Here we rederive the solar nickel abundance, using the same ab initio 3D hydrodynamic…

Estimates of the bulk metal abundance of the Sun derived from the latest generation of model atmospheres are significantly lower than the earlier standard values. In Paper I we demonstrated that a low solar metallicity is inconsistent with…

We investigate the angular behavior of the upper bound of absorption provided by the guided modes in thin film solar cells. We show that the 4n^2 limit can be potentially exceeded in a wide angular and wavelength range using two-dimensional…