Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Syllabus
Chapter 4: PN Junctions
Chapter 5: Solar Cells and Parameters Chapter 6: Design of Silicon Cells Chapter 7: Manufacturing Si Cells
Books
http://www.pvcdrom.pveducation.org/
Books
Bube, R. H. Photovoltaic Materials. London, UK: Imperial College Press, 1998. ISBN: 9781860940651. Green, M. A. Solar Cells: Operating Principles, Technology and System Applications . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1981. ISBN: 9780138222703. Wenham, S. R., M. A. Green, M. E. Watt, R. Corkish. Applied Photovoltaics. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Earthscan Publications Ltd., 2007. ISBN: 9781844074013. Green, M. A. Silicon Solar Cells: Advanced Principles and Practice . Sydney, Australia: Centre for Photovoltaic Devices & Systems, 1995. ISBN: 9780733409943. Aberle, A. G. Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells - Advanced Surface Passivation & Analysis. Sydney, Australia: University of New South Wales, 2004. ISBN: 9780733406454 Poortmans, J., and V. Arkhipov. Thin Film Solar Cells: Fabrication, Characterization and Applications. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2006. ISBN: 9780470091265. Green, M. A. Third Generation Photovoltaics: Advanced Solar Energy Conversion. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, 2007. ISBN: 9783540265627. Luque, A., and S. Hegedus. Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering . Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2003. ISBN: 9780471491965
Today prices continue to drop and new 3rd generation solar cells are researched.
Photovoltaic Materials
Crystalline Silicon
Amorphous Silicon
Solar PV Materials:
Crystalline & Polycrystalline Silicon
Advantages:
High Efficiency (14-22%) Established technology (The leader) Stable
Disadvantages:
Expensive production Low absorption coefficient Large amount of highly purified feedstock
Amorphous Silicon
Advantages: High absorption (dont need a lot of material) Established technology Ease of integration into buildings Excellent ecological balance sheet Cheaper than the glass, metal, or plastic you deposit it on Disadvantages: Only moderate stabilized efficiency 7-10% Instability- It degrades when light hits it Now degraded steady state
The Sun
Blackbody Radiation
The total power density from a blackbody is determined by integrating the spectral irradiance over all wavelengths which gives:
where is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant and T is the temperature of the blackbody (K).
The wavelength at which the spectral irradiance is the highest, or, in other words the wavelength where most of the power is emitted.
the spectral content of the incident light; the radiant power density from the sun; the angle at which the incident solar radiation strikes a photovoltaic module; and the radiant energy from the sun throughout a year or day for a particular surface.
Atmospheric Effects
Atmospheric effects have several impacts on the solar radiation at the Earth's surface. The major effects for photovoltaic applications are: A reduction in the power of the solar radiation due to absorption, scattering and reflection in the atmosphere; A change in the spectral content of the solar radiation due to greater absorption or scattering of some wavelengths; The introduction of a diffuse or indirect component into the solar radiation; and Local variations in the atmosphere(such as water vapor, clouds and pollution) which have additional effects on the incident power, spectrum and directionality.
Atmospheric Effects
When dealing with "particles" such as photons or electrons, a commonly used unit of energy is the electronvolt (eV) rather than the joule (J). An electron volt is the energy required to raise an electron through 1 volt, thus 1 eV = 1.602 x 10-19 J.
Spectral Irradiance
The spectral irradiance of xenon (green), halogen (blue) and mercury (red) light bulbs (left axis) are compared to the spectral irradiance from the sun (purple, which corresponds to the right axis).
Orbit Ellipticity
Air Mass
Spectral match Irradiance inhomogeneity - spatial uniformity over the illumination area Temporal Instability - stability over time. There are three classes within each of these criteria where 'A' is the top rating an 'C' is the lowest rating
Actual system outputs may be significantly lower, due to suboptimal system performance, design, installation, shading losses,
Test Case