SOLAR CELLS

Solar cells are devices which convert solar energy into electricity, either directly via the
photovoltaic effect, or indirectly by first converting the solar energy to heat or chemical energy.
The most common form of solar cells are based on the photovoltaic (PV) effect in which light
falling on a two layer semiconductor device produces a photo voltage or potential difference
between the layers. This voltage is capable of driving a current through an external circuit and
thereby producing useful work.
Although, practical solar cells have only been available since the mid 1950s, scientific
investigation of the photovoltaic effect started in 1839, when the French scientist, Henri
Becquerel discovered that an electric current could be produced by shining a light onto certain
chemical solutions. The effect was first discovered in a solid material (selenium) in 1877. A
silicon solar cell which converted 6% of sunlight falling onto it into electricity was developed by
Chapin, Pearson, and Fuller in 1954, and this kind of cell was used in specialized applications
such as orbiting space satellites from 1958.
Todays commercially available silicon solar cells have efficiencies exceeding 15% of the
sunlight falling onto them into electricity.
The Need for Solar Cells
The development of solar cell use has been stimulated by:
The need for low maintenance, long lasting sources of electricity, suitable for places
remote from both the main electricity grid and from people; e.g. Satellites, remote site
water pumping, outback telecommunications stations and lighthouses.
The need for cost effective power supplies for people remote from the main
electricity grid; e.g. Indigenous and non-indigenous isolated settlements, outback
sheep and cattle stations, tourism and travelers.
The need for non-polluting and silent sources of electricity; e.g. tourist sites, caravans
and campers.
The need for a convenient and flexible source of small amounts of power; e.g.
calculators, watches, light meters and cameras.
The need for renewable and sustainable power, as a means of reducing global
warming.
The preference for many people in grid connected areas to obtain their energy
services from environmentally benign sources.

Green House
A green house is a growth chamber, which offers the possibilities of year round plant production.
These are effective solar collectors. A green house attached to a residence designed in a truly
passive solar collection manner with a well-applied heat store can provide much of the winter
required winter heat.
Green houses provide crop cultivation under controlled environment. A green house is a
structure covered with transparent material that utilizes solar radiant energy to grow plants and
may have heating, cooling and ventilating for temperature control.

Advantages of Green Houses
A green house structure is a live solar collector that provides:
1) A source of additional heat (temperature control) for the house attached to it.
2) A source of moderator for humidity control in the house.
3) A source of good quality food that one grows one self.

A green house can be separate structure sitting all by itself out in a field or can be an integral part
of the houses. Green houses can be covered with plastic films, they are called plastic green
houses; when they are covered with glass fiber reinforced plastic process panels, they are fiber
green houses. But generally green houses are synonymous with glass houses. Usually south side
is made of glass while north side is insulated. The sky radiation blocked by north side is only a
small fraction of the total radiation in most of the regions.

Types of Green Houses
Some broad classification of the green houses includes the following:
1) Attached green house, which may be joined onto almost any suitable building structure.
2) Porch type green houses which may be designed as the entrance to a house, factory or office.
3) Free standing green houses, this may be situated on any convenient patch or piece of waste
land.
4) Pit type green houses, which are usually employed on differing level or sloping landscapes,
and for the purpose of heat retention.
5) Cold frame type green houses, which are simply hotbeds or plant facing frames, equipped
with a sloping roof.
The free standing and pit type of green houses are not directly attached to any building. These
two types have insulated walls on the northeast and west sides. The walls are suitably designed
to permit maximum reflection of the incoming radiation onto the plant canopy. Enough storage
facilities are providing to meet the requirements. The pit type however differs from the free
standing type being partially sunk. So it has the advantage of being in contact with the
temperature stability of the deep earth. A green house, which does not have a separate structure
and is a part of the house, is called attached type. This type of green houses has the advantage
that it can draw heat from an already heated structure when required and can return excess heat
when conditions are sunny. There are various designs of attached type green houses, but one
elongated along the east-west axis is the most efficient shape for solar energy collection.
Depending on the climatological conditions, green house structures can be divided into two
categories.
1) Winter green house and 2) Summer green house.
The winter green house is constructed in those countries where the outside ambient temperature
is very low compared to the requirement of the plant growth. Obviously it is used for the heating
purposes. Hence attention is given to catch enough of incoming heat from the sun. So south side
is usually made of glass, sometimes doubly glazed and interior surface of the north wall is
painted white. Uses of movable insulation to prevent unwanted heat loss, provision for storage
facilities to account for the demand during sun down hours are some of the important features.
Windows are provided in east and west walls for ventilation.
Summer green houses are constructed in those countries where the outside ambient temperature
is very high compared to the plant growth temperature. Typically summer climate is
characterized by high ambient temperature, clear sky and high humidity. So one has to design the
green house in such a way that, inside the temperature may not reach very high. Usually this type
of green house has two sets of windows placed in the south as well as north wall. These windows
can be used to cool the green house by free convection.

Construction of a Solar Cell
Silicon solar cells are made using single crystal wafers, polycrystalline wafers or thin films.
Depending upon the type of materials used for the manufacturing there are different types of
silicon solar cells:
(a) Single crystal solar cell
(b) Polycrystalline solar cell
(c) Amorphous silicon solar cell
Single crystal wafers are sliced from a large single crystal ingot which has been grown at a
temperature of about 1400
o
C. This is a very expensive process. The silicon must be very pure
and must have a near perfect crystal structure.
Polycrystalline wafers are made by casting process in which molten silicon is poured into a
mould and allowed to set. Then it is sliced into wafers. As polycrystalline wafers are made by
casting they are significantly cheaper to produce, but not as efficient as mono-crystalline cells.
The lower efficiency is due to the imperfections in the crystal structure resulting from the casting
process.
Amorphous silicon is made by depositing silicon onto a glass substrate from a reactive gas such
as silane (SiH
4
). The substrate used to coat the films can be made up of glass or plastic. Other
thin film solar cells are multi-crystalline silicon cells, copper-indium diselenide/cadmium
sulphide cells, cadmium telluride/cadmium sulphide cells and gallium arsenide cells.
In solar cell production silicon has dopant atoms introduced into its crystal structure to create a
p-type and n-type region thereby producing a p-n junction. Dopants are atoms of another element
that are added to materials to control its conductivity. This doping can be done by high
temperature diffusion, where the wafers are placed in a furnace with the dopant introduced as
vapor. There are many other methods of doping silicon. In the manufacture of thin film solar
cells, the dopants are introduced during the deposition of thin films or layers.
A silicon atom has 4 weakly bound valence electrons. These valance electrons are bonded to the
valence electron of another silicon atom to form a crystal structure. Replacing a silicon atom
with a dopant atom that has 3 (boron atom) or 5 (phosphorous atom) valence electrons will
therefore produce either a hole or one free electron that can move freely through the crystal
structure. And hence the conductivity of the materials can be controlled.
Ptype doping, creation of excess holes is achieved by the incorporation of atoms with 3 valence
electrons, most often boron or aluminum. N-type doping, or the construction of extra electrons is
achieved by incorporating an atom with 5 valence electrons, most often phosphorous.
Once a p-n junction is created, electrical contacts are made to the front and back of the cell by
evaporating or screen printing metal on the wafer. The rear of the wafer can be completely
covered by metal, but the front only has a grid pattern or thin lines of metal, otherwise the metal
would prevent the sunlight falling from the silicon wafers and there would not be any current
output.
Figure- Silicon crystal lattice with dopant atoms








Working of Solar Cells
Solar cells consists of 2 type of materials, often the p-type and n-type silicon. Light of certain
wavelengths are able to ionize the atoms in the silicon causing atoms either to gain or lose
electrons and the internal field produced by the junction separates holes from the electrons. The
holes are swept into the positive or p-layer and the electrons are swept into the negative or n-
layer. Although these opposite charges are attracted to each other, most of them can recombine
only recombine by passing through an external circuit outside the material because of the internal
potential energy barrier. Therefore if a circuit is made, power can be produced from the cells
under illumination, since the free electrons have to pass through the load to recombine with the
holes.
The p-n junction is made near the surface of the solar cell and the electrons and holes created due
to absorption of sunlight moves towards the front and back of the cell respectively. The charges
are collected in the metal contacts on the front and rear side of the cell. The area covered by the
metallic grid on the front side is generally about 5% of the total cell are to allow maximum
sunlight to fall on the active cell area. Reflection of light from the front surface of the cell is
reduced by using an anti-reflective coating.

The amount of power available from a photovoltaic device is determined by:
The type and area of the material
The intensity of the sunlight
The wavelength of the sunlight
Figure- Photovoltaic Effect in a Solar Cell









Figure- Typical p-n junction Solar Cell







Efficiency of Solar Cells
Solar cells do not operate at the theoretical maximum efficiency because of several limitations.
The factors which limit the efficiency of photovoltaic solar energy conversion device:
1. Reflection losses at the top surface
2. Shading due to charge collection grid at the top surface
3. Incomplete absorption of photon energy due to limited cell thickness
4. Collection loss
5. Voltage factor loss
6. Series and shunt resistance loss
The efficiency of the solar cell for converting light into useful power is given by:

Where V
m
and I
m
are the voltage and current at the highest power point and P
in
is the power
input.
Solar Cell Efficiency Factors
Maximum power point:
A solar cell may operate over a wide range of voltages (V) and current (I). By increasing the
resistive load (voltage) in the cell from zero (including a short circuit) to infinitely high values
(including an open circuit) one can determine the maximum power point (the maximum output
electrical power).

Energy conversion efficiency:
It is the percentage of power converted (from absorbedlight to electrical energy) and collected
when a solar cell is connected to an electrical circuit.
Fill Factor:
It is the ratio of the maximum power point to the open circuit voltage (V
oc
) and short circuit
current (I
sc
).
FF= P
m
/( V
oc
x I
sc
)
Quantum efficiency:
It refers to the percentage of absorbed photon that produces electron-hole pairs (or charge
carriers).

The CdS/CdTe Solar Cell
Currently, the semiconductor most widely used in solar cells in single-crystal silicon. The main
features of a CdS/CdTe Solar Cell are:
The cell is produced from polycrystalline materials and glass, which is a potentially much
cheaper construction than bulk silicon.
The chemical and physical properties of the semiconductors are such that the polysilicon
thin films can be deposited using a variety of different techniques.
CdTe has a band gap, which is very close to the theoretically calculated optimum value
for solar cells under un-concentrated sunlight.
CdTe has a high absorption coefficient, so that ~99% of the incident light is absorbed by
a layer thickness of only 1m, cutting down the quantity of the semiconductor required.

Cell Construction
The CdS/CdTe Solar Cell is based on the hetro junction formed between n-type CdS and p-type
CdTe.




Figure- CdS/CdTe Solar Cell









The functions of the different layers are as follows:
Glass: The solar cell is produced on a substrate of ordinary window glass, because it is
transparent, strong and cheap. Typically around 2-4 mm thick, this protects the active
layers from the environment, and provides the entire devices mechanical strength. The
outer face of the pane often has an anti-reflective coating to enhance its optical
properties.
Transparent conducting oxide: Usually of tin oxide or indium tin oxide, this acts as the
front contact to the device. It is needed to reduce the series resistance of the device,
which would otherwise arise from the thinness of the CdS layer.
Cadmium Sulphide: The polycrystalline CdS layer is n-type doped and therefore provides
one half of the p-n junction. Being a wide band gap material (2.4eV) it is transparent to
wavelengths of around 515nm, and so is referred toas the window layer.
Cadmium Telluride: The CdTe layer is like the CdS, polycrystalline, but is doped. Its
energy gap(1.5eV) is ideally suited to the solar spectrum, and it has a high absorption
coefficient for energies above this value. It acts as an efficient absorber and is used as the
p side of the junction. Because it is less highly doped than the CdS, the depletion layer is
mostly within the CdTe layer. This is therefore the active region of the solar cell, where
most of both the carrier generation and collection occur. The thickness of this layer is
typically around 10m.
Back contact: Usually gold or aluminium, the back contact proves a low resistance
electrical connection to the CdTe. P-type CdTe is a difficult material on which to produce
an ohmic contact.

Deposition Techniques
The polycrystalline layers of CdS and CdTe can be deposited in many ways:
Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD)
PVD involves the vaporization in a vacuum of a source of either the compound (CdS or
CdTe) or the separate elements (Cd+S or Cd+Te). The resulting vapors combine on the
surface of the substrate to deposit the required polycrystalline material.
Closed space sublimation
It has been used to produce the highest efficiency cells so far and is based on the
reversible dissociation of the materials at high temperature. The source is of a large area
and is positioned close to the substrate. The substrate is maintained at a high temperature
such that the elemental vapors will not become deposited on the substrate but the
compound form will, due to its lower equilibrium vapor pressure.
Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)
It involves chemical reactions between vapors to produce the required species, which
then condense on the substrate to form the compound. One variation of this Metal-
organic CVD uses metallo-organic precursors; this is a widespread technique as it
produces thin films with very good optical and electronic properties.
Chemical Bath Deposition
It is sometimes used for depositing CdS films and involves producing the required ions in
a solution by chemical means, which combine and precipitate out onto the substrate if the
required equilibrium conditions are met.

Applications of Solar Energy
Direct solar energy applications are discussed below:
Solar Water Heating
The basic elements of a solar water heater are
Flat plate collector
Storage tank
Circulation system and auxiliary heating system
Control of the system
The two main components of the system are the liquid flat-plate collector and the storage tank,
the tank being located above the level of the collector. As water in the collector is heated by solar
energy, it flows automatically to the top of the water tank and it is replaced by cold water from
the bottom of the tank. Hot water for use is withdrawn from the top of the tank. Whenever this is
done, cold water automatically enters at the bottom. An auxiliary heating system is sometimes
provided for use on cloudy or rainy days.
Figure- Small capacity natural circulation water heating system









Small capacity domestic solar water heaters are also available in simpler design in which the
functions of the collector and storage tank are combined in one unit. A schematic diagram of one
such unit is shown in the figure. It consists of a closed shallow rectangular box, 5 to 10cm deep,
made of sheet metal. The box is contained in a housing, which supports a glass cover and is
insulated around the bottom and sides. The box is filled with water in the morning, which heats
up through the day and is withdrawn, for use in the evening.
Figure- Collector-come-storage type of solar water heater






When a large amount of hot water is required, a natural circulation system is not suitable. Large
arrays of flat-plate collectors are then used and forced circulation is maintained with a water
pump. The restriction that the storage tank should be at a higher level is thus removed. Water
from a storage tank is pumped through a collector array, where it is heated and then flows back
into the storage tank. Whenever hot water is withdrawn for use, cold water takes its lace and it is
achieved by a ball-float control. The pump for maintaining the forced circulation is operated by
an on-off controller which senses the difference between the temperature of the water at the exit
of the collectors and a suitable location inside the storage tank. The pump is switched on
whenever this difference exceeds a certain value and is switched off when it falls below a certain
value. Provision is also made for an auxiliary heater.
Figure- Industrial solar water heating system-closed loop configuration










Many variations are possible in the configuration. A popular variation is one with an open loop
configuration. In such types, the water flows from a cold water tank through the collectors to an
insulated hot water storage tank from where it is withdrawn for use.
Figure- Industrial solar water heating system-open loop configuration






Space Heating
In a space heating system, water is heated in the solar collectors (A) and stored in the water tank
(B). Energy is transferred to the air circulating in the house by means of the water-to-air heat
exchanger (E). Two pumps (C) provide forced circulation between the collectors and the tank
and between the tank and the heat exchanger. Provision is also made for auxiliary heating. This
is an active method of space heating.
Figure- Schematic diagram of a space heating system using a liquid flat-plate collector







In contrast to the active methods, adopting passive methods can also do space heating giving a
fair degree of comfort. A passive method is one in which thermal energy flows through a living
space by natural means without the help of a mechanical device like a pump or a blower. Such a
system was designed by Prof. Trombe and hence this method is called Trombe Method.
The south-facing wall of the house is double-glazed. Behind it is a thick black concrete wall,
which absorbs the suns radiation and serves as a thermal storage. Vents (A & B) which can be
kept open or closed, are provided near the top and bottom of the storage wall.
During the day, both vents A & B are kept open. The air between the inner glazing and the wall
gets heated and flows into the living space through the top vent. Simultaneously, the cooler air
from the room is pulled out of the living space through the bottom vent. Thus, a natural
circulation path is set up. Some energy transfer to the living space also takes place by radiation
from the inner surface of the storage wall. During the night, both vents are closed and energy
transfer takes place only by radiation.
The Trombe wall design can also provide summer ventilation by using vents C & D near the top
of the glazing wall and on the north-facing wall. On a hot summer day, vents B, C & D would be
kept open, while vent A would be kept closed. The heated air between the glazing and the wall
would then flow out through vent C drawing air from the living space to replace it. This in turn
would cause air to be pulled in from outside through vent D. The vent D should be located such
that the air pulled in through it comes from a shaded and cool area. It should be noted that the
overhanging roof prevents direct radiation from falling on the glazing during summer.
Figure- pace heating by passive methods- Trombe Method







Space Cooling
A simple solar operated absorption refrigeration system is shown in figure. Water heated in a
flat-plate collector array is passed through a heat exchanger called the generator, where it
transfers heat to a solution mixture of the absorbent and refrigerant, which is rich in the
refrigerant vapor, is boiled off at a high pressure and goes to the condenser where it is condensed
into a high pressure liquid. The high-pressure liquid is throttled to a low pressure and
temperature in an expansion valve, and passes through the evaporator coil. Here, the refrigerant
vapor absorbs heat and cooling is therefore obtained in the space surrounding this coil. The
refrigerant vapor is now absorbed into a solution mixture withdrawn from the generator, which is
weak in refrigerant concentration. This yields a rich solution, which is pumped back to the
generator, thereby completing a cycle. The rich solution flowing from the absorbent to the
generator is usually heated in a heat exchanger by the weak solution withdrawn from the
generator. This helps to improve the performance of the cycle. Some of the common refrigerant-
absorbent combinations used are ammonia-water and ammonia-lithium bromide.
Figure- Solar absorption refrigeration system (Solar space cooling)





Basic Photovoltaic system for power generation
A basic photovoltaic system permits solarly generated electrical power to be delivered to a local
load. It consists of:
Solar array, large or small, which converts the insolation to useful DC electrical power.
A blocking diode, which lets the array-generated power, flow only toward the battery or
grid. Without a blocking diode the battery would discharge back through the solar array
during times of no insolation that the cell equivalent circuit has a forward biased diode in
it.
Battery storage, in which the solarly generated electric energy may be stored.
Inverter/converter, which converts the battery bus voltage to AC of frequency and phase
to match that, needed to integrate with the utility grid. Thus it is typically a DC, AC
inverter. It may also contain a suitable output step up transformer.
Appropriate switches and circuit breakers, to permit isolating parts of the system, as the
battery. One would also want to include breakers and fusing protection between the
inverter output and the utility grid.
Figure- Basic photovoltaic system integrated with power grid








Applications of Solar Photovoltaic System
Water pumping sets for micro irrigation and drinking water supply.
Community radio and television sets
Cathodic protection of oil pipe lines
Weatering monitoring
Railway signaling equipment
Battery charging
Street lighting
Solar water pumping system consists of:
A photovoltaic array
Storage battery
Motor pumps
Water storage tank
Advantages and Disadvantages of Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conversions
Advantages
Direct room temperature conversion of light to electricity through a simple solid state
device
Absence of moving parts
Ability ot function unattended for long periods(in space programs)
Modular nature in which desired currents, voltages and power levels can be achieved by
mere integration.
Maintenance cost is low
Pollution free
Long effective life
Highly reliable
Easy to fabricate
Disadvantages
The principle disadvantages are their high cost and the fact that in many applications energy
stored is required because of the insolation at night.
Solar Distillation
Solar energy can be used to convert saline water into distilled water. The pure water can be
obtained by distillation in the simplest solar still, generally known as the basin type solar still.
Such solar stills consist of blackened basin containing saline water at a shallow depth, over
which a transparent airtight cover is that encloses completely by the space above the basin. It has
a roof like shape. The cover-usually glass or plastic-is sloped towards a collection trough. Solar
radiation passes through the cover and is absorbed and converted into heat in the black surface.
Impure water in the basin or tray is heated and the vapor produced is condensed to purified water
on the cooler interior of the roof. The transparent roof material transmits nearly all radiation
falling on it and absorbs very little; hence it remains cool enough to condense the water vapor.
The condensed water flows down the sloping roof and is collected in troughs bottom. Saline
water can be replaced in the operation by either continuous operation or by batches. Solar still
installations may provide about 15-50 liters per day per 10 sq. m.

Figure- Solar Water Still










Solar Pumping
Solar pumping consists in utilizing the power generated by solar energy for water pumping,
useful for irrigation. The basic system consists of the following components:
The solar collectors- Flat plate collectors
The heat transport system
Boiler or heat exchanger
Heat engine
Condenser
Pump, it may be a (a)reciprocating pump (b) centrifugal pump (c) Diaphragm pump (d)
Rotary pump.
The solar pump is not much different from a solar heat engine working in a low temperature
cycle. The source of heat is the solar collector, and sink is the water to be pumped. The primary
components of the system are an array of flat plate collectors and an heat engine with an organic
fluid as the working substance. During operation a heat transfer fluid flows through the collector
arrays. Depending upon the collector configuration, solar flux and operating conditions of the
engine, the fluid will be heated in the collector to a higher temperature. The fluid flows into the
heat exchanger, due to the temperature gradient, and comes back to the collector after the heat
exchange. This fluid evaporates and expands in the engine before reaching the condenser, where
it condenses at a low pressure. The water to be pumped cools the condenser. The fluid is then re-
injected in the boiler to close the cycle. The expansion engine is coupled to the pump and it
could be coupled to an electric generator.
Figure- Schematic Diagram of a Solar Pump









Solar Furnace
A solar furnace is an instrument to get high temperatures by concentrating solar radiation onto a
specimen. Solar furnace consists of a number of heliostats (turnable mirrors) are arranged in
terraces on a sloping surface so that, regardless of the suns position, they always reflects solar
radiation in the same direction onto a large paraboloid (or spherical) reflecting collector made up
of many fixed mirrors attached to the face within a small volume. The most desirable mirrors is
that obtained by grinding and polishing a glass plate into an optical flat, aluminizing or silvering
or silvering by vacuum evaporation, and cooling with a suitable film.
Figure- Principle of solar furnace








Advantages of solar furnace:
In a solar furnace heating is carried out without any contamination and changing the
position of the material in focus easily controls temperature.
It gives an extremely high temperature
It provides very rapid heating and cooling
Various property measurements are possible on an open specimen
Limitations
Its use is limited to sunny days, and to 4-5 hours only
High cost