Solar Energy basic concept

Sun:

Largest member of solar system

It is a sphere of intensely hot gaseous matter with diameter 1.39×109 m.
Distance of sun from Earth is 1.495 ×1011 m.
The Sun rotate on its axis about once in every four weeks.
The core temperature is estimated between 8×106 to 40×106 K.
Core density is about 100 times of water and pressure 109 atm
4(1H1) 2 He4+ 26.7 Mev
Propagation of Solar radiation through atmosphere:
 Extraterrestrial radiation :
λ= 0.2 to 4 µm

Maximum intensity= 0.48 µm

Ultraviolet region (6.4%)

λ < 0.38 µm

Visible region (48%)

0.38 µm < λ < 0.78 µm

Infrared region (45.6%)

0.78 µm < λ

Terrestrial radiation :
0.29 µm < λ < 2.3 µm

Spectral power distribution of solar radiation

Depletion of solar radiation
If the Sun’s radiation was not filtered or depleted in some manner, our planet
would soon be too hot for life to exist. We must now consider how the Sun’s
heat energy is both dispersed and depleted.

This is accomplished through

 Dispersion,

Scattering,

Reflection and absorption.

Introduction
Solar Cell: Device which directly converts the energy of light into electrical
energy through photovoltaic effect, it is also called as photovoltaic cell

Semiconductor:

Splitting of energy band in a crystal

Direct and Indirect Band Gap:
Energy band Model of Semiconductor:

Energy band in intrinsic semiconductor Energy band in extrinsic semiconductor at temp> 0K

Solar Cell:

Cross section of cell

Solar PV Module Connection of cell

 Classification of solar cells

On the basis of On the basis of On the basis of

thickness of jn structure type of active
active material material used

PN PN Metal P-i-N jn
homojunction hetrojunction semicond jn

Thick film Thin film

c-Si a-Si GaAs CIGS CdTe Organic

Single Crystalline Multi crystalline

 On the Basis of Thickness of Active Material
Thick film cell: Base material (starting material in fabrication process) itself is an
active material
Thin film cell: In thin film cells, a thin film (few nm to 10s of µm) deposition of
active material is carried out on the back support sheet, known as substrate.
Advantages & Disadvantages:
Low active material consumption.
Continuous production process.
The cell area larger than about 25 cm2 appear to be difficult with state of the art
technology.
Small area cell have disadvantage of cell mismatch.
Surface texture problem
Facts:
Single crystal and multicrystalline cell have tried but could not succeed
commercially.
Amorphous silicon and compound semiconductor cells are being developed using
thin film technology but most of them degrade their performance when exposed to
outdoor radiation
Therefore, at present bulk material single crystal and multicrystalline cells are
most successful
 On the Basis of Junction Structure
PN homojunction:
 Semiconductor material on both sides of the junction is same, only the doping
materials are different.
 Thus the band gap remains same throughout the cell material
 Most of electron hole pairs generated in the top layer are lost to recombination
when they are created more than a diffusion length from the junction
PN hetrojunction:
 Two dissimilar semiconductor materials, such as group III-V or group II-VI
compound semiconductor with closely matching crystal lattice are used to form
the junction.
 The band gap of the top material, exposed to Sun light is wider than the band gap
of the material below the junction.
 Higher band gap region will appear transparent to photon with lower energies,
so they can penetrate to the junction where the band gap is less than the incident
photon energy.
 Thus electron – hole pairs are generated within or near depletion region, where
they are collected before they recombine
Common heterogeneous solar cell structure are:

GaAs-GaAlAs (Gallium Arsenide- Gallium Aluminium Arsenide)

CdS-Cu2S (Cadmium Sulphide- Copper Sulphide)

CdS-CuInSe (Cadmium sulphide-Copper Indium Diselenide)

CdS-CdTe(Cadmium Sulphide-Cadmium Telluride)

Table: Elemental Semiconductors used in Solar photovoltaic device

II III IV V VI
B C
Al Si P S
Zn Ga Ge As Se
Cd In Sb Te
Metal Semiconductor Junction:

When a contact is made between a metal and a semiconductor, either an ohmic

contact (permitting bi- directional contact) or a rectifying contact (permitting
only unidirectional current) is formed depending on the work function of the
metal and semiconductor .
The rectifying contact is known as Schottky junction.
The Schottky junction has depletion layer and built in electric field on the
semiconductor side of the junction.
The Schottky barrier junction is relatively straightforward to fabricate , but is
not efficientas a PV cell since it has relatively smaller open circuit voltage than
conventional PN junction.
On the basis of Active Materials:
 Solar Collectors
What Are Solar Collectors?
Although solar panels are the most known device when it comes to solar
energy, Solar thermal collectors are also very efficient and are used to collect
heat by absorbing sunlight. Solar thermal is also used for capturing solar
radiation, which is energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation consisting
of both infrared and ultraviolet waves. This can occur due to the huge
quantity of sunlight that hits Earth’s surface on a daily basis.
Solar collectors can be either non-concentrating or concentrating. The
difference between them is that concentrating collectors have a bigger
interceptor than the absorber, while the non-concentrating collectors have
them both with same sizes. Flat-plate and evacuated-tube solar collectors are
used for domestic purposes, such as space heating, hot water or cooling.
 Difference
Non- Concentrating Collector Concentrating Collector
Absorber area is large Absorber area is small
Concentration ratio is 1 Concentration ratio is high
It uses both beam and diffuse It uses mainly beam radiation
radiation
Low temperature application High temperature application
Due to low temperature it, it does not Due to high temperature it, it can be
use to produce power used for power generation
Simple in Maintenance Difficult in Maintenance
Design is easy Complex Design
Comparatively low cost This is costly
Flat Plate Collector:
Effect of various Parameter on Performance:
Selective Surface: High value of absorptivity and low value of emissivity
Number of Covers: Increase in number of cover decreases flux absorb by
absorber
Spacing: Spacing in range from 4 to 8 cm is normally suggested
Collector Tilt: Winter (φ + 100 ), Summer (φ - 100 ),
Properties of some of materials for absorber plate
Dust on the top of the Cover
Material Density (kg/m3) Specific heat Thermal coductivity
(kJ/kg-0C) (W/m 0C)
Aluminium 2707 0.996 204
Steel 7833 0.465 54
Copper 8954 0.383 386
Brass (70/30) 8522 0.385 111
Zinc, pure 7144 0.384 112
Silver 10524 0.234 419
Flat Plate Air Heating Collector:
Evacuated Tube Collector:
Compound Parabolic Concentrator:
Parabolic Dish Collector: It can have concentration ratio ranging
from 10 to few thousand and can yield temperature up to 30000C. Paraboloidal
dish collector of 6-7 m in diameter are commercially manufactured.
Parabolic Trough Collector
Solar Thermal Power Plant: