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Thin-film Solar Cells
A thin-film solar cell is a second generation solar cell that is made by depositing one or more thin layers, or thin film (TF) of photovoltaic material on a substrate, such as glass, plastic or metal. Thin-film solar cells are commercially used in several technologies, including cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), and amorphous thin-film silicon (a-Si, TF-Si). Film thickness varies from a few nanometers ( nm) to tens of micrometers (µm), much thinner than thin-film's rival technology, the conventional, first-generation crystalline silicon solar cell (c-Si), that uses wafers of up to 200 µm thick. This allows thin film cells to be flexible, and lower in weight. It is used in building-integrated photovoltaics and as semi-transparent, photovoltaic glazing material that can be laminated onto windows. Other commercial applications use rigid thin film solar panels (interleaved between two panes of glass) in some of the world's largest photovolt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Photovoltaic
Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially used for electricity generation and as photosensors. A photovoltaic system employs solar modules, each comprising a number of solar cells, which generate electrical power. PV installations may be ground-mounted, rooftop-mounted, wall-mounted or floating. The mount may be fixed or use a solar tracker to follow the sun across the sky. Photovoltaic technology helps to mitigate climate change because it emits much less carbon dioxide than fossil fuels. Solar PV has specific advantages as an energy source: once installed, its operation generates no pollution and no greenhouse gas emissions, it shows scalability in respect of power needs and silicon has large availability in the Earth's crust, although other materials required in PV system man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solar Panel
A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a photovoltaic system or solar array. Solar panels capture sunlight as a source of radiant energy, which is converted into electric energy in the form of direct current (DC) electricity. Arrays of a photovoltaic system can be used to generate solar electricity that supplies electrical equipment directly, or grid-connected photovoltaic system, feeds power back into an alternate current (AC) electric grid, grid via an solar inverter, inverter system. History In 1839, the ability of some materials to create an electrical charge from light exposure was first observed by the French physicist Edmond Becquerel. Though these initial solar panels were too inefficient for even simple electric devices, they were used as an instrument to measure light. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Micromorph
The portmanteau micromorph is a combination of the words microcrystalline and amorphous. It is used for a type of silicon based multijunction thin-film solar cell. The micromorph cell Micromorph cells are thin film solar cells based on a multijunction–architecture consisting of two solar cells that are stacked on top of each other. While the thin amorphous silicon top cell absorbs the blue light, the thicker microcrystalline silicon bottom cell absorbs the red and near-infrared light, allowing this so-called tandem cell to cover a wider range of the solar spectrum. Since the bandgaps of amorphous silicon (1.7eV) and microcrystalline Silicon (1.1eV) are well suited for tandem solar cells, the Shockley-Queisser limit of this cell allows conversion efficiencies of over 30%. In reality this limit can not be reached and typical stable efficiencies are about 9% (world record 11.7%). That is well over the stable efficiencies of single junction thin film silicon solar cells which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nanocrystal Solar Cell
Nanocrystal solar cells are solar cells based on a substrate with a coating of nanocrystals. The nanocrystals are typically based on silicon, CdTe or CIGS and the substrates are generally silicon or various organic conductors. Quantum dot solar cells are a variant of this approach, but take advantage of quantum mechanical effects to extract further performance. Dye-sensitized solar cells are another related approach, but in this case the nano-structuring is part of the substrate. Previous fabrication methods relied on expensive molecular beam epitaxy processes, but colloidal synthesis allows for cheaper manufacture. A thin film of nanocrystals is obtained by a process known as "spin-coating". This involves placing an amount of the quantum dot solution onto a flat substrate, which is then rotated very quickly. The solution spreads out uniformly, and the substrate is spun until the required thickness is achieved. Quantum dot based photovoltaic cells based on dye-sensitized colloid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Copper Zinc Tin Sulfide Solar Cell
Copper zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ... tin sulfide (CZTS) is a quaternary semiconducting compound which has received increasing interest since the late 2000s for applications in Thin-film solar cell, thin film solar cells. The class of related materials includes other I2-II-IV-VI4 such as copper zinc tin selenide (CZTSe) and the sulfur-selenium alloy CZTSSe. CZTS offers favorable optical and electronic properties similar to CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide), making it well suited for use as a thin-film solar cell absorber layer, but unlike Copper indium gallium selenide, CIGS (or other thin films such as CdTe), CZTS is composed of only abundant and non-toxic elements. Concerns with the price and availability of indium in CIGS and tellurium in CdTe, as well ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quantum Dot Solar Cell
A quantum dot solar cell (QDSC) is a solar cell design that uses quantum dots as the absorbing photovoltaic material. It attempts to replace bulk materials such as silicon, copper indium gallium selenide ( CIGS) or cadmium telluride (CdTe). Quantum dots have bandgaps that are tunable across a wide range of energy levels by changing their size. In bulk materials, the bandgap is fixed by the choice of material(s). This property makes quantum dots attractive for multi-junction solar cells, where a variety of materials are used to improve efficiency by harvesting multiple portions of the solar spectrum. As of 2022, efficiency exceeds 18.1%. Quantum dot solar cells have the potential to increase the maximum attainable thermodynamic conversion efficiency of solar photon conversion up to about 66% by utilizing hot photogenerated carriers to produce higher photovoltages or higher photocurrents. Background Solar cell concepts In a conventional solar cell, light is absorbed by a semi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dye-sensitized Solar Cell
A dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC, DSC, DYSC or Grätzel cell) is a low-cost solar cell belonging to the group of thin film solar cells. It is based on a semiconductor formed between a photo-sensitized anode and an electrolyte, a '' photoelectrochemical'' system. The modern version of a dye solar cell, also known as the Grätzel cell, was originally co-invented in 1988 by Brian O'Regan and Michael Grätzel at UC Berkeley and this work was later developed by the aforementioned scientists at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) until the publication of the first high efficiency DSSC in 1991. Michael Grätzel has been awarded the 2010 Millennium Technology Prize for this invention. The DSSC has a number of attractive features; it is simple to make using conventional roll-printing techniques, is semi-flexible and semi-transparent which offers a variety of uses not applicable to glass-based systems, and most of the materials used are low-cost. In practice it has p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Organic Solar Cell
An organic solar cell (OSC) or plastic solar cell is a type of photovoltaic that uses organic electronics, a branch of electronics that deals with conductive organic polymers or small organic molecules, for light absorption and charge transport to produce electricity from sunlight by the photovoltaic effect. Most organic photovoltaic cells are polymer solar cells. The molecules used in organic solar cells are solution-processable at high throughput and are cheap, resulting in low production costs to fabricate a large volume. Combined with the flexibility of organic molecules, organic solar cells are potentially cost-effective for photovoltaic applications. Molecular engineering (''e.g.,'' changing the length and functional group of polymers) can change the band gap, allowing for electronic tunability. The optical absorption coefficient of organic molecules is high, so a large amount of light can be absorbed with a small amount of materials, usually on the order of hundreds of nan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Third Generation Photovoltaic Cell
Third-generation photovoltaic cells are solar cells that are potentially able to overcome the Shockley–Queisser limit of 31–41% power efficiency for single bandgap solar cells. This includes a range of alternatives to cells made of semiconducting p-n junctions ("first generation") and thin film cells ("second generation"). Common third-generation systems include multi-layer ("tandem") cells made of amorphous silicon or gallium arsenide, while more theoretical developments include frequency conversion, (i.e. changing the frequencies of light that the cell cannot use to light frequencies that the cell can use - thus producing more power), hot-carrier effects and other multiple-carrier ejection techniques. Emerging photovoltaics include: * Copper zinc tin sulfide solar cell (CZTS), and derivates CZTSe and CZTSSe * Dye-sensitized solar cell, also known as "Grätzel cell" * Organic solar cell * Perovskite solar cell * Quantum dot solar cell The achievements in the research of pero ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Growth Of Photovoltaics
Worldwide growth of photovoltaics has been close to exponential between 1992 and 2018. During this period of time, photovoltaics (PV), also known as solar PV, evolved from a niche market of small-scale applications to a mainstream electricity source. When solar PV systems were first recognized as a promising renewable energy technology, subsidy programs, such as feed-in tariffs, were implemented by a number of governments in order to provide economic incentives for investments. For several years, growth was mainly driven by Japan and pioneering European countries. As a consequence, cost of solar declined significantly due to experience curve effects like improvements in technology and economies of scale. Several national programs were instrumental in increasing PV deployment, such as the Energiewende in Germany, the Million Solar Roofs project in the United States, and China's 2011 five-year-plan for energy production. Since then, deployment of photovoltaics has gained momentu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Accelerated Life Testing
Accelerated life testing is the process of testing a product by subjecting it to conditions (stress, strain, temperatures, voltage, vibration rate, pressure etc.) in excess of its normal service parameters in an effort to uncover faults and potential modes of failure in a short amount of time. By analyzing the product's response to such tests, engineers can make predictions about the service life and maintenance intervals of a product. In polymers, testing may be done at elevated temperatures to produce a result in a shorter amount of time than it could be produced at ambient temperatures. Many mechanical properties of polymers have an Arrhenius type relationship with respect to time and temperature (for example, creep, stress relaxation, and tensile properties). If one conducts short tests at elevated temperatures, that data can be used to extrapolate the behavior of the polymer at room temperature, avoiding the need to do lengthy, and hence expensive tests. Purpose ALT is pri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solar PV Systems
A photovoltaic system, also PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and convert sunlight into electricity, a solar inverter to convert the output from direct to alternating current, as well as mounting, cabling, and other electrical accessories to set up a working system. It may also use a solar tracking system to improve the system's overall performance and include an integrated battery. PV systems convert light directly into electricity, and are not to be confused with other solar technologies, such as concentrated solar power or solar thermal, used for heating and cooling. A solar array only encompasses the ensemble of solar panels, the visible part of the PV system, and does not include all the other hardware, often summarized as balance of system (BOS). PV systems range from small, rooftop-mounted or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
