SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC

Photovoltaic Systems

• Solar cell Fundamentals

• Solar cell characteristics
• Solar cell classification
• Solar cell, module, panel and array construction
• Maximizing the Solar PV output and Load Matching
• Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT)
• Solar PV systems
• Solar PV applications
FUNDAMENTALS OF SOLAR CELLS

• Semiconductors
• PN junction
• Photon absorption
• Photoconduction
Orbit and energy levels
Energy band
…..
Free electron – hole flow
 Terms and Definition

• Charge carriers
• Conditions (creation, recombination, temporary existence)
• Doping
• Donor and Acceptor
• Energy gap, Conduction and Valence Band
Fermi Level in intrinsic, n-type and p-type
 PN Junction
• Abrupt PN Junction and Graded Junction
• Carries diffusion into higher and lower concentration
• Depletion Region / Transition Region / Space Charge Region
 Photon Absorption
• Electron-hole pair generation
• For Silicon, having a band gap of 1.1 eV, photons of 1.1 μm or
less are required to produce electron hole pair.
• Direct and Indirect Band gap Semiconductor material.
…..
Energy of a Photon
…..
 Photoconduction
• The electron hole pair out of the junction region become a part
of the majority carriers in the respective regions and diffuse
away from the junction region as their concentration near the
junction has increases.
• If a load is connected to it, the photon-generated current will
flow through this external circuit.
• It is proportional to the number of electron hole pairs
generated.
SOLAR CELL CHARACTERISTICS

• I-V Characteristics
• Equivalent Circuit
• Effect of Variation of Insolation and Temperature
• Energy Losses and Efficiency
• Maximizing the performance
• Cell Size
• Energy Payback Period (EPP)
 I-V characteristics
• When the junction terminal is short-circuited, V becomes zero
and a finite current flows through the external path and is
called as Short-circuit current. (Insolation)
• When an external voltage is connected to the cell to nullify the
current, it is called as short circuit voltage.
• Fill Factor indicates the quality of the cell and is defined as the
ratio of the peak power to the product of open-circuit voltage
and short-circuit current.
…..
…..
…..
 Equivalent circuit
• Ideally, the internal series resistance and Shunt resistance was
considered to be Zero and Infinite respectively. But this is not
the case in actual practice.
 Effect of Insolation and Temperature
• Isc and Voc increases with increase in the intensity of radiation.
• Short-circuit current varies linearly and Open-circuit voltage
varies logarithmically on insolation.
• The Isc on any insolation level G is given by:

• For the increase in temperature, there is an reduction in band

gap leading to increase in current.
• Whereas, by increase in temperature, the reverse saturation
current also increases and it leads to decrease in Cell voltage
by ~ 2.2 mV/°C.
…..
 Energy Losses and Efficiency
• Conversion Efficiency (12 – 15%)
• The decrease in Efficiency is due to several loss mechanisms.
• It may be due to the internal or external factors
• 20 – 45% of the incident radiation is not used for photocurrent
generation.
• 30 -40% of energy is lost as a function of barrier height.
• The remaining 35% energy from the overall incident radiation is
not fully converted to power but has a degradation due to some
more factors.
• Loss of minority carrier due to recombination in carrier collection
process.
• Reflection from active surface (anti-reflection coating and
pyramidal or textured structure)
• Reflect back rear contact for providing to utilize back the
unabsorbed photon leaving the thickness of the cell.
Antireflective and Reflective Coating
…..
 Maximizing the performance

• Maximizing values of Voc and Isc

• Low Series Resistance
• High Fill factor and Shunt Resistance
• The maximizing performance is done by preventing the
leakage over the perimeter of the cell and passivating the
surface (increases shunt resistance).
• High doping for series resistance but it can lead to decrease in
width of the depletion layer.
 Cell Size
• Thickness of the Silicon cell is in the range of 200 microns to
400 microns.
• The current industry standard sizes available are:
– 100 mm (4 inch) diameter, round single crystalline
– 100 cm2 off square single crystalline
– 100 mm X 100 mm (~ 4 inch X 4 inch) square
multicrystalline
– 125 mm X 125 mm (~ 5 inch X 5 inch) square
multicrystalline
 Energy Payback Period (EPP)
• The length of time during which a solar cell generates the
same amount of energy that it has consumed during its
production is known as energy payback period.
• 3.5 to 5 years for single crystal bulk silicon solar cell.
SOLAR CELL CLASSIFICATION
• The main classification of Solar cell is:
– Thickness of active material
– Type of Junction structure
– Type of Active material used in its fabrication
• Single Crystal Silicon Solar Cell
• Multicrystalline Silicon Solar Cell
• Amorphous Silicon (a-Si) Solar Cell
• Gallium Arsenide Cell
• Copper Indium (Gallium) Diselenide (CIS) Cell
• Cadmium Telluride Cell
• Organic PV Cell
 Thickness of the Active Material
• Bulk material and Thin film cell
• Bulk material – base material is itself an active material
• Thin film cell – here a thin film is laid or deposited over back
support sheet called as substrate.
• Thin film has more benefits as that of the bulk material.
– Less active material consumption
– Sequence of process can be done
• Thin film has the demerits of size limitation, degradation and
Unstable nature
• Hence, bulk type material are the widely used one in terms of
both the single crystal type and mutli-crystalline type.
…..
 On the basis of Junction Structure
• They are classified as
– PN homojunction cell
– PN heterojunction cell
• (GaAs-GaAlAs, CdS-Cu2S, CdS-CuInSe2)
• Group III-V or Group II-VI
– PN multijunction cell
– Metal-semiconductor (Schottky) junction
– p-i-n (p-type-intrinsic-n type) semiconductor junction
Type of Active Material – Single Crystal Si
• They are the most widely used, and are highly energy
intensive and requires high production cost for a single PV.
• 50 kWh/kg of silicon for its ore extraction and further
refinement need 200 kWh/kg of silicon.
…..
 Multi-crystalline Silicon
• Efficiency of 10 – 14%.
…..
 Amorphous Silicon
• Has efficiency of 4 to 8%
• The randomness of atoms results in incomplete covalent bond
and in turn in trapping of mobile carrier between the atoms
due to irregular pattern.
• This can be avoided by alloying the Hydrogen in it, to get Si:H
material which results in removal of unwanted gap states.
• Another advantage is that it has a direct band gap of 1.75 eV.
 Gallium Arsenide Cell
• Has direct band gap of 1.43 eV, with a FF of 80% and Voc of
0.8 to 0.9 V.
• Efficiency greater than 20%, but implemented rarely due to
high production cost.
 Copper Indium Diselenide (CIS) Cell

• Efficiency around 10%.

• CIS alone has a direct band gap of 1.0 eV and incorporation of
Ga increases the band gap beyond 1.1 eV.
 Cadmium Telluride Cell
• Direct band gap of 1.44 eV, Thin film heterogeneous
composition
• Efficiency of ~10% and Voc of 0.8 V.
 Organic PV Cell
• Efficiency is very low about 3.5%
• Flexible compared to Si (brittle)
• Named as Solar Plastics - Fabricated out of carbon based dyes
and polymers
Solar cell to Array
 Solar Cell
• Bulk material has a thickness of 100 to 350 microns
• Metallic grid covers minimum possible top surface are of less
than 10%
 Solar PV Module
• It is a basic building block of PV system with back cover of
several square feet, with transparent cover on the top.
• Mostly there will be 32 or 36 Silicon cells in a single module
with a charging capability of 12V.
• The problems faced in module construction is:
– Cell mismatch in a module
– Effect of shadowing
Shadowing Effect
Solar Panel and Array
 Maximizing the Solar PV Output & Load
Matching
• Tracking the sun’s direction for maximum insolation
• Tracking electrically for the operating point by manipulating
the load to maximize the power output under changing
conditions
 MPPT
• Maximum Power Point Tracker
• To trace the I-V characteristics.
• Fixed between PV system and Load
• Buck-boost converter is used to vary the IV based on the load
condition.
 …..
• Three ways to monitor the operation of MPPT:
– By Monitoring Dynamic and Static Impedances
– By Monitoring Power Output
– By fixing the output voltage as a fraction of Voc.
 Solar PV systems
• It can be broadly classified into:
– Central Power Station System
– Distributed System
• Stand-alone system
• Grid-interactive system
• Small System for Consumer Applications
• (Hybrid System)
Stand – Alone Solar PV system
Grid-Interactive Solar PV Systems
 Solar PV Applications
• Grid-Interactive PV Power Generation
• Water Pumping
• Lighting
• Medical Refrigeration
• Village Power
• Telecommunication and Siganaling
Water Pumping
Lighting
Medical Refrigeration
 Merits of Solar PV System
• The main advantage of Solar PV is:
– It converts solar energy directly into electrical energy.
– It has no moving parts
– They are reliable, modular, durable and generally
maintenance-free.
– These systems are quiet, compatible with almost all
environments.
– Respond instantaneously to solar radiation
– Lifespan of 20 years
– Can be constructed at the user’s location itself.
 Demerits of Solar PV systems
• The disadvantages of Solar PV systems are:
– Cost of Solar cells are very high
– Efficiency is low
– To generate the required amount of power, large area of
solar cell modules are to be placed.
– As this source of energy is intermittent, some other
electrical systems or hybrid systems are used to meet the
requirements, in turn making it more expensive.
 Text Book
• B.H.Khan, ‘Non Conventional Energy Resource’ – The
McGraw – Hill Second edition
QUESTIONS