Solar Cell Processing And Fabrication

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 specific material is modeling in only reliable for in-house applications instead of commercial. A complete solar cell information is usually provided by the manufacturer which leads design challenges in

Purpose: Make a new type of solar cell that, in theory, could be used in solar panels. This new solar is more environmentally friendly and safer to use.

Zhou,Z.H.,Tolbert,D.B.Toso,R.Thomas,B.J.Schwartz,Y.Rubin,N.S.Knutson,D.Kilbride,B.C.Huber,A.S.Ferrreira,L.S.Devi,J.R, Challa.Solar Power EnergySLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, “New design could dramatically boost efficiency of low cost-solar panels” Science Daily, Print. July 2015. Web.  .

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.

Near infrared (NIR) light has attracted much attention owing to its widespread applications in energy conversion, (-- removed HTML --) (-- removed HTML --) 1–3 (-- removed HTML --) (-- removed HTML --) sensing, (-- removed HTML --) (-- removed HTML --) 4 (-- removed HTML --) (-- removed HTML --) and bio-therapy. (-- removed HTML --) (-- removed HTML --) 5–7 (-- removed HTML --) (-- removed HTML --) In particular, to solve the energy problem all over the world, efficient utilization of natural energy is strongly required. Si solar cells (SCs) are the most widespread energy conversion devices used to harvest solar energy. However, Si SCs do not respond to NIR light of over 1200 nm in wavelength in the solar spectrum owing to their

We analyzed that solar panels may or may not be a viable source of energy. There are many factors that contribute to the energy output, but one of the most important factor is the quality of the panels to generate electricity. Solar energy is quite unique from other dominating energy sources since the energy doesn’t deplete. But weather and other obstacles could prevent the collection temporarily. Two researchers mixed titanium dioxide with photoanodes by sinter-ing them. Then they added Ruthenium N749 dye to assemble into a completed solar panel. A team of researchers used carbon rather than silicon to build the solar cells. They spinned the pan-els while spraying carbon nanotubes across it. Another team of researchers applied organic dyes to panels where all layers could harvest photons.

Solar cells are categorized into three major generations , First generation solar cells are based on silicon wafers and have an efficiency of 15-20%, The major advantage of first generation solar cells is their stability ,However due to heavier production costs ,large amount of energy is involved during their production that makes their large scale production uneconomic and unaffordable .

Objectives: To create a more reflective and efficient photovoltaic roof panel in order to allow

The conversion of the sunlight directly into electricity by using the electronic properties of various suitable materials appears to be an attractive energy conversion process and more or less an ideal alternative to available conventional energy sources. The solar cell technology has developed enormously over the last four decades, initially for being used to provide electrical power for spacecrafts and also more recently for various terrestrial applications. The main reason for this technological development lies in the realization that traditional fossil energy resources like coal, oil and gas are not just rapidly depleting, but they also contribute to unpredictable and probably irreversible climate changes in the approaching future through the extreme high emission levels of greenhouse gases (e.g. CO2, CO, SO2 and P2O5) and also due to acidification. The photo voltaic source of energy that is solar irradiation, has the major advantage of being widely distributed over the world. The solar irradiation falling on the earth’s surface is not a limiting factor and also supersedes our needs by far. Photovoltaic industry has leapfrogged the barriers over the last three decades from merely being a conceptual industry to a full-fledged commercial industry. Recent major investments and the on hand manufacturing facilities are only mainly for silicon based technologies, with more than 93% market share, mainly due to its maturity, growth and huge

Solar photovoltaic cells are catogorized into three generational groups. First generation cells are made from crystalline silicon, expensive to construct, and offer little flexibility. Second generation cells are made from amorphous (non-crystalline) silicon, cheaper to make than crystalline, offer some flexibility, yet still utilize rare and often toxic materials. Consequently, the maturation of the build process for 1st and 2nd generation

The first chalcopyrite solar cells were reported by Wagner et al. in 1974 when a 12% efficient cell was created based on single crystal CuInSe2 absorber. [1] Later, Kazmerski et al. demonstrated that a thin film solar cell could be created by an evaporation process. [2] Commercial CIGS modules were not produced, however, for another 20 years. Since that time the material has been continuously studied and improved. Ga was added to stabilize the p-type conductivity and increase the band gap. It was also discovered that the addition of Na, either through the use of soda-lime glass substrate or added during the growth process, helps to boost the conductivity of the material and control the film growth and free carrier concentration. [2] As of 2014, the record for CIGS efficiency demonstrated in a laboratory setting was held by researchers at Stuttgart’s Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research (ZSW), for their achievement of a 21.7% efficient cell. [3] As of May 2015, the Taiwanese company TSMC Solar has reported the highest efficiency module that is commercially available with a rating of 16.5%. [4]

This paper will present the degradation of solar cell performance when exposed to solar wind in space, particularly in the Van Allen belt region. Also, solar cell theory is mathematically modeled and described using Matlab simulation software accompanied by the SRIM software to generate the targeting data. Follow with the degradation modeling of Si, InGaP/GaAs/Ge triple-junction space solar cells when are exposed to high energy charged particles, especially protons and electrons in the Mega-electron-Volt range. In this model, carrier removal rate of the base layer and damage coefficient of minority carrier diffusion length in each sub-cell are considered as radiation degradation parameters. In addition, this paper will present the status of high radiation-resistant solar cells made from Si, InGaP/GaAs/Ge for space application to guarantee the successful operation of the satellite.

New generation photovoltaic cells based on organic materials possess the potential for the low cost and large area production on mechanically flexible substrates. These are lightweight and suitable for the applications such as foldable and portable solar cells. Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have not achieved efficiencies comparable to the inorganic solar cells due to poor charge carrier mobility [1]. Recent developments of optimizing the organic absorbing materials have shown encouraging device performance towards overcoming the challenges associated with commercialization. Using various fabrication techniques, production speed up to several meters square per second can be achieved. With roll to roll fabrication process, about 105 m2 of a film can be prepared in a day. The production of organic photovoltaic devices can be achieved in large quantity and many times cheaper than the conventional inorganic photovoltaic technology.

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.