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 of time ,the thin film manufacturing technique became popular . However , with the increase in silica manufacturing capacity , the overall prices are expected to move downwards .
Other concerns are the capacity of ingot shaping and wafer slicing industries and number of specialists who coat the wafer with chemicals
Comments