Solar Cell And Its Industry

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.

Commonly, renewable energy is defined as energy which is able to be captured from existing natural resources that are replenished rapidly, such as flowing water, sunshine, wind, geothermal heat flows and ocean [2]. Renewable energy technologies are required to provide technologies to use one or several renewable energy resources. There are some different types of renewable energy technologies, which include solar energy, bioenergy, hydropower, wind energy, geothermal energy and tidal energy. This thesis project will focus on the solar photovoltaic which is currently one of types of solar energy technologies, and this technology using photovoltaic cells to converts sunlight directly into electricity.Solar photovoltaic system can generate electricity from sunlight through using PV modules, and the system can be integrated into building designs, installed on rooftops, or large scale power plant. With the development of photovoltaic technologies, solar photovoltaic capacity has been increased from 3.7 GW (2004) to 177GW (2014) [3]. Figure 2 shows this change from 2004 to 2014, there is a big trend of increase in these years. The increase of PV capacity can reduce the carbon emission and provides more job opportunities. It also helps to reduce air pollution and make a friendly environment for living. One of the common PV system is

Introduction: The tradition solar cells have many faults and are dangerous to the environment. The TSC gives out a lot of pollution through its waste such as silicon tetrachloride. Also, when the reactors need to be cleaned several harmful greenhouse gases are used. The eye sensitized solar cells that are being designed in this lab are much cleaner for the environment. No waste is produced and no harmful gases are need to clean them.

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.

Almost everyone has heard of solar energy already. Although it is very well known, it has to be used by many people. The biggest problem is the cost of solar energy. There are only a select few who use solar energy. Solar energy has many benefits, but when one sees the price of solar energy, they turn their head the other way. In the beginning, solar cells were extremely expensive to make. They were used in special applications, such as aircraft. Performance mattered more than the cost of making solar cells. However, it is less expensive to make. This is where the problem lies, how to increase efficiency while keeping the manufacturing at a low cost. The energy consumption of solar energy falls below one percent of total energy consumption.

The future of solar energy technology is poised for significant growth in the 21st century (Union of Concerned Scientists). It has been said that more

Chrobak, Pavel, et al. "Photovoltaics and its potential application in the production of electricity." Annals of DAAAM & Proceedings, 2015, p. 1032+. Academic OneFile,

of renewable energy, solar energy, which converts sun energy directly to usable energy such as

There are many resources that can be used to provide energy for life on earth. Some of those resources are better than others in terms of their environmental effect. An example of one of these “better” resources is the photovoltaic cell. A photovoltaic cell or solar cell converts light energy into electricity. This electricity in turn, can be used to power many aspects of human life such as; turning on lights or a television, charging a phone or driving a car. Photovoltaic cells also involve a great deal of chemistry from how they convert light energy to chemical energy, down to its own structural components. The basic process of energy conversion involves a semiconductor cell made of Silicon interacting with photons and

In 1954, Bell Laboratories have developed the first solar cell and the energy efficiency was 6% back then (Goetzberger et al. 2002). The figure has been raised to over 10% within 18 months (Green. 2009). For a long period of time, solar energy has mainly been applied into the power supply of space vehicles (Goetzberger et al. 2002). On account of the substantial development in the performance of silicon cells, the efficiency of solar energy conversion has reached 25% (Green. 2009). The growth over time of solar efficiency is delineated in Figure 1:

Solar cells are now being widely used all over the world. A solar cell is also known as a photovoltaic cell. It is an electrical device that converts the energy of visible light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect. The light that shines on the cell produces a current and a voltage to generate electric power. Photovoltaic modules produce direct current (DC) while homes use alternating current (AC). If a DC load is used you can use an inverter which changes DC electricity into AC. This will be discussed in more detail later on.

Photovoltaic (PV) cells are a great way to produce energy from the sun. A photovoltaic cell is a semiconductor that converts light into a direct current. This energy can be used in calculators, homes, street signs, stop lights, and many more everyday products. In 1839, Antoine-César Becquerel discovered the photovoltaic effect. The photovoltaic effect is when light falls on an electrode, producing voltage. Following Becquerel’s discovery Charles Fritts constructed an ultrathin semiconductor of gold in order to produce a current. Charles Fritts method was very inefficient because it only converted less than 1% of the light intake to electricity. Even though gold semiconductors is inefficient in today's technology it was a foreshadowing of a new renewable source of energy. In 1927, copper oxide was used as a semiconductor while copper was used for the casing of the semiconductor. This new material still only converted less than 1% of the light intake into voltage. In 1941 the inefficiency problem was helped by Russell Ohl, who created the silicon solar cell. The use of the silicon solar cell proved to be more productive as it raised converted 6% of light intake. In 1980, solar cells fabricated out of

The basic principle behind photovoltaics is the conversion of sunlight into electricity. Photovoltaic cells, “generate electric power when illuminated by sunlight or artificial light. They are by far the most highly developed of the man-made photoconversion devices”. (pg.1) Although seemingly cutting edge, the physics and technology behind photovoltaics is nothing new. Their history reaches as far back as 1839, with the first photoconversion devices appearing in the 1950 's and the earliest installations of these devices taking place in the 1970 's. Today, with technological innovations consistently and exponentially improving everything from photovoltaic efficiency to their aesthetic qualities, photovoltaic devices are poised for significant market expansion.

Solar energy may define as the energy received by the earth from the sun. This solar energy is in the form of solar radiation. With the help of solar cells, solar radiation can convert into electricity. Sun is a highly powerful energy source, humans and natures are directly depending on the sun. For example in hydro-electricity the solar energy needed for the evaporation of water after that it returns to earth as rain and provides water in dams. In biomass, the solar energy used that process. Solar cells directly converted solar radiation into electricity, during the process time there is no noise or pollution are there. These cells made with some semiconducting materials. If use solar cells in our home it will help to reduce the greenhouse gas emission, minimise the percentage of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and mainly reduce the necessity of fossil fuels and natural gas use to produce electricity. According to the Ben Sorensen, solar energy is one of a good source of substitute energy, for the reason that it is renewable, economical and does not pollute our environment. Thus, this essay will be divided into three parts. Firstly, we will talk about fossil fuels and its demerits. Secondly, we will look at the issues and implications of solar energy. Finally, we will focus on the advantageous and disadvantageous of solar energy respectively.

Abstract: The current energy situation with fossil fuels as the main source of the world’s energy has two main flaws: fossil fuels contribute to global warming via the greenhouse effect and they are limited in the quantity that remains. Solar power solves both of these problems and can be captured by utilizing photovoltaic cells. However, photovoltaic cells have their own drawbacks due to their high costs of installation and maintenance.