Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from November, 2010

Photvoltaic Cells

Of late I have been musing on the benefits of renewable energy ,and the first thing that struck me was solar energy and photovoltaic cells . Essentially PV Cells can be made from monocrystalline , polycrystalline , amorphous silica , thin films ,organic polymers , Cadmium telluride , Gallium Arsenide , Copper-Indium Selenide Photons in sunlight hit the solar panel and are absorbed by semiconducting material such as silicon Electrons are knocked loose from their atoms ,allowing them to flow through the material to produce electricity An array of solar cells converts solar energy into a usable amount of DC electricty Efficiency of a solar cell may be broken down into reflectance efficiency , thermodynamic efficiency , charge carrier efficiency and conductive efficiency . Overall efficiency is the product of the individual efficiencies . Price of solar cells fell continuously for 40 years until Germany provided high subsidies and there was a drastic increase in demand . During that point ...