Analysis of Solar Photovoltaic Development and Constraints

The world population of 7.2 billion in mid-2013 is projected to increase by almost one billion people within the next twelve years. It is projected to reach 8.1 billion in 2025, and to further increase to 9.6 billion in 2050 and 10.9 billion by 2100. This assumes a decline of fertility for countries where large families are still prevalent as well as a slight increase of fertility in several countries with fewer than two children per woman on average.

     In 1954 Bell Laboratories invented the first photovoltaic (or solar) cell, made from the semi-conductor silicon, and other elements. It was the first way to convert sunlight directly into electricity. When the space program was launched in the 60's, it

As the human race continues to grow older the population starts to grow. Population growth is a change in the size of a population over time, depending on the balance of births and deaths over a period of time. For the world, population grows when the amount of births exceeds the amount of deaths. As shown in figure 1, the world’s population grew very slowly until about 1750 that is when the population growth started to increase rapidly. Figure 2 shows the growth of the global population from 1950 onwards, it also shows the projected population growth up to 2050. The global population is estimated to rise to approximately 9 billion people by 2050.

Consider that Earth’s population is projected to rise to 10 billion by the year 2050. The current

The greatest energy that can be produced by the sun is electricity. Photovoltaics, or solar cells, capture the sun and convert it into electricity. Solar cells were discovered by the Europeans back in the 1870’s when they used selenium to develop the telegraph. They found that when light hits selenium it would produce and electrical current. Soon enough there were many scientists and engineers working on photovoltaic systems. Silicon and Selenium proved to be the two best elements to conduct electricity when light hits them. Photovoltaic systems (PV cell) work by converting the suns light into electricity. A semi conducting material absorbs the sunlight, that energy knocks electrons loose from their atoms, this allows the electrons to flow through the material to produce electricity. The further development of solar cells can be attributed to the satellite industry. Solar cells were expensive and there was no use for them until satellites came. Because it is impractical to tether satellites it became important to develop solar energy at any cost that would power these satellites. This created a sustainable market for solar power, the first of its kind.

The Global human population increases growth amounts to around 75 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 7 billion in 2012. It is expected to keep growing, and estimates have put the total population at 8.4 billion by mid-2030, and 9.6 billion by mid-2050. Many nations with rapid population growth have low standards of living, whereas many nations with low rates of population growth have high standards of living.

1954, three American researchers, Gerald Pearson, Calvin Fuller and Daryl Chapin, designed a silicon solar cell capable of a six percent energy conversion efficiency with direct sunlight

Solar energy has been used for a very long time. The first account of the use of solar energy was from the Greeks. They built their homes in a way that the sun would heat up their houses, even during the cold winters. Ancient Indians also used this method. Let's skip to 1839. In 1839, Edmond Becquerel observed that when certain material was exposed to light, it would create a small amount of electric current. This is the photovoltaic effect(A Brief). This led to John Ericsson developing what he said to be a solar powered steam engine in 1870. Now let’s jump to the late 1950s when a one-watt solar cell costed $300 and a commercial power plant watt cost $0.50 per watt. A scientist was able to demonstrate how a car can

This number is expected to grow to around 552 million with as little as 15 to 20 years. 1

There are two main forms of solar power: The use of photovoltaic, or PV, cells, and the use of thermal energy from the sun. Photovoltaic cells exploit the photoelectric effect, which converts the protons from the light of the sun into electrons, which can be converted into energy. Photovoltaic energy accounts for fifteen gigawatts of global energy, which is equivalent to fifteen large electric power plants. Also, the production of PV cells has increased by two thousand times over the past twenty years, and it is expected to continue to grow. Solar-thermal energy takes the thermal energy created by the sun and turns it into electricity. Although it only only produces as much energy as one large power plant, solar-thermal energy has many domestic uses. It can not only be used for electricity, but also for solar heating, which uses sunlight to heat up houses. Solar power has already proven to be a reliant source of energy, and it will only continue to improve in technology and

Previously, we didn’t have to rely to much on energy, however times change causing a large consumption of energy. Solar panels may seem like a good idea due to its constant release of energy. On the contrary, in Source A, Michael Dhar states,” when a photon of sunlight knocks an electron free, the electric field will push that electron out of the silicon junction. A couple of other components of the cell turn these electrons into usable power” showing that at an optimal state, the sun will produce energy. These result often vary due to the amount of inconstant

In the last decades energy consumption has come to a time where people started noticing the climate changes and the effect of fossil fuel energy for not only being environmentally destructive, but also causing Global warming (the warming that occurs as a result of increase emissions of greenhouse gases) has become a very big issue worldwide. The fossil fuels (Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas) which is the main sources of the world’s energy sources, is also one of the main causes of the climate change. In addition with some human activities (e.g. through burning fossil fuels), they have contributed immensely to the global warming, which has also affected the climate conditions in the world. The affect of these changes has prompted some people to propose alternative energy like solar panels. According to Abby Gruen, after realizing the issues, the engineers at Bell Laboratories come up with the first useful photovoltaic cell, an alternative to fossil fuel energy but less harmful for the environment and the pocket. Solar panel which uses renewable energy like the sun to light homes heat and produces electricity. Unlike fossil fuel, solar panels is less harmful for the environment. Since it creation few decades ego, just recently solar panel started getting popular in homes in the United States and around the world. When it was invented people were not interested about it, because of the high installation price, however the price has changed dramatically since then. Even though

Solar cell or photovoltaic (PV) systems usually transformed energy from the sun in to electric current. It can be measured in terms of ‘‘conversion efficiency’’, the proportion of solar energy transformed to electricity. (Henderson, Conkling, & Roberts, 2007) Sunpower primarily focused on the production of solar cell. But by moving in to wafer manufacturing it soon incorporated in to manufacturing of solar power module units. In general Sunpower manufacturing process needed approximately two times as many steps as the usual solar manufacturing process need and many of these steps were distinctive to Sunpower. Sunpower has nearly 15 -20 established cell manufactures, a handful of silicon – based cell manufacturing upstarts and a number of thin film solar companies offering potentially unsettling technologies.

Think about solar energy and the first image that springs to the mind is that of those arrays of shiny photovoltaic panels adorning the rooftops and the countryside. Indeed, photovoltaic cells still remain the most popular way of generating solar power. Solar power, for one thing, is not cheap. However, even though the initial set up costs can be quite high, the long-term financial benefits of using solar power are too strong to deny.

This report documents the work done during Summer internship at BHEL ASSCP(Amorphous Silicon Solar Cell Plant). The report shall give an overview of the following:-