Explaining the working principle of photovoltaic cells

The Sun is by far the most abundant form of renewable energy available on our planet. The amount of energy that Earth receives from the Sun is immense, in fact, it has been calculated that the amount of solar energy that Earth receives in one minute from the Sun would be enough to satisfy the energy needs of entire human population for one year. The world, however, uses only a tiny fraction of totally available solar energy, primarily because solar power technologies need to improve their cost-effectiveness (solar panels cost a lot and they are not that efficient). When explaining the working principle of photovoltaic (solar) cells we first need to know that sunlight is made out of tiny energy pockets called photons and that each individual solar cell is designed with a positive and negative layer thus being able to create an electric field (similar to the one in batteries). As photons are absorbed in the cell their energy causes electrons to get free, and they move to the bottom of the cell, and exit through the connecting wire which creates electricity (flow of electrons). The bigger amount of the available sunlight the greater the flow of electrons, and the more electricity gets produced in the process. Photovoltaic or solar panels are devices that are used to convert sunlight into electricity. Photovoltaic panels consist of numerous solar cells. By combining these individual solar cells into photovoltaic panels we can produce enough energy to power our homes as well as for many other purposes (space satellites).

Solar cells absorb photons Photovoltaic cells are usually made of expensive materials such as silicon, thus explaining the high costs of solar panels. However, solar panel prices have decreased by approximately 70% in the last three years, meaning that they are becoming more competitive with fossil fuels in terms of economics. Installing solar panels on the rooftops of your home is not that complicated, primarily because solar panels do not have moving parts. Once installed, they operate very silently, and with enough available sunlight will provide emission-free source of renewable energy.

The electricity generated by photovoltaic panels is direct current. This means that there is a need for installing inverter. With the installation of inverter this direct current can be converted into alternating current so it's in sync with mains electricity, and can be used normally. As already said above, the amount of sunlight at your location plays key role in determining the economics of your solar power installation. Some areas receive more sunlight than other, and in these areas installing solar panels is more economically viable.

2. Solar Cell Design Principles

Solar cell design involves specifying the parameters of a solar cell structure in order to maximise efficiency, given a certain set of constraints. These constraints will be defined by the working environment in which solar cells are produced. For example in a commercial environment where the objective is to produce a competitively priced solar cell, the cost of fabricating a particular solar cell structure must be taken into consideration. However, in a research environment where the objective is to produce a highly efficient laboratory-type cell, maximising efficiency rather than cost, is the main consideration.

Evolution of silicon solar cell efficiency.

The theoretical efficiency for photovoltaic conversion is in excess of 86.8% 1. However, the 86.8% figure uses detailed balance calculations and does not describe device implementation. For silicon solar cells, a more realistic efficiency under one sun operation is about 29% 2. The maximum efficiency measured for a silicon solar cell is currently 24.7% under AM1.5G. The difference between the high theoretical efficiencies and the efficiencies measured from terrestrial solar cells is due mainly to two factors. The first is that the theoretical maximum efficiency predictions assume that energy from each photon is optimally used, that there are no unabsorbed photons and that each photon is absorbed in a material which has a band gap equal to the photon energy. This is achieved in theory by modeling an infinite stack of solar cells of different band gap materials, each absorbing only the photons which correspond exactly to its band gap. The second factor is that the high theoretical efficiency predictions assume a high concentration ratio. Assuming that temperature and resistive effects do not dominate in a concentrator solar cell, increasing the light intensity proportionally increases the short-circuit current. Since the open-circuit voltage (Voc) also depends on the short-circuit current, Voc increases logarithmically with light level. Furthermore, since the maximum fill factor (FF) increases with Voc, the maximum possible FF also increases with concentration. The extra Voc and FF increases with concentration which allows concentrators to achieve higher efficiencies. In designing such single junction solar cells, the principles for maximising cell efficiency are:

increasing the amount of light collected by the cell that is turned into carriers; increasing the collection of light-generated carriers by the p-n junction; minimizing the forward bias dark current; Extracting the current from the cell without resistive losses.

*********A simple solar circuit

The simplest possible solar battery charging circuit is just to connect the positive wire from the solar panel to the positive battery terminal, and the negative solar panel wire to negative battery terminal. This will quite happily charge a battery! However, there are two potential problems with attaching a panel directly to a battery. The first is that, at night, electricity can leak back into the panel, which will slowly discharge the battery. In fact, the amount of leakage is usually small, and not worth worrying about - but if you do want to prevent it you can easily fit a diode (a sort of one-way valve for electricity) in the line, as in this diagram:

The second problem is more serious - the solar panel, if left on its own, can overcharge the battery. To avoid this you are better using a charge controller.