Solar Panel

A solar panel is a set of solar photovoltaic modules electrically connected and mounted on a
supporting structure. A photovoltaic module is a packaged, connected assembly of solar cells.
The solar panel can be used as a component of a larger photovoltaic system to generate and
supply electricity in commercial and residential applications. Each module is rated by
its DC output power under standard test conditions (STC), and typically ranges from 100 to 320
watts. The efficiency of a module determines the area of a module given the same rated output an 8% efficient 230 watt module will have twice the area of a 16% efficient 230 watt module. A
single solar module can produce only a limited amount of power; most installations contain
multiple modules. A photovoltaic system typically includes a panel or an array of solar modules,
an inverter, and sometimes a battery and/or solar tracker and interconnection wiring.

A solar photovoltaic module is composed of individual PV cells. This crystalline-silicon module

has an aluminium frame and glass on the front.
Solar Cell
A solar cell (also called a photovoltaic cell) is an electrical device that converts the
energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect. It is a form of
photoelectric cell (in that its electrical characteristicse.g. current, voltage, or
resistancevary when light is incident upon it) which, when exposed to light, can

generate and support an electric current without being attached to any external
voltage source, but do require an external load for power consumption.
The term "photovoltaic" comes from the Greek (phs) meaning "light", and
from "volt", the unit of electro-motive force, the volt, which in turn comes from the
last name of the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta, inventor of the battery
(electrochemical cell). The term "photo-voltaic" has been in use in English since
1849

A solar cell made from amonocrystalline silicon wafer with itscontact grid made
from busbars (the larger strips) and fingers (the smaller ones)

The operation of a photovoltaic (PV) cell requires 3 basic attributes:

1. The absorption of light, generating either electron-hole pairs or excitons.
2. The separation of charge carriers of opposite types.
3. The separate extraction of those carriers to an external circuit.
In contrast, a solar thermal collector supplies heat by absorbing sunlight, for the purpose
of either direct heating or indirect electrical power generation. "Photoelectrolytic cell"
(photoelectrochemical cell), on the other hand, refers either to a type of photovoltaic cell
(like that developed by A.E. Becquerel and modern dye-sensitized solar cells), or to a
device that splits water directly into hydrogen and oxygen using only solar illumination.

Building block of a solar panel

Assemblies of photovoltaic cells are used to make solar modules which generate
electrical power from sunlight. Multiple cells in an integrated group, all oriented in

one plane, constitute a solar photovoltaic panel or "solar photovoltaic module," as

distinguished from a "solar thermal module" or "solar hot water panel." The
electrical energy generated from solar modules, colloquially referred to as solar
power, is an example of solar energy. A group of connected solar modules is called
an "array."

Further improvements
In recent times, further improvements have brought production costs down under $1 a
watt, with wholesale costs well under $2. "Balance of system" costs are now more than
the panels themselves. Large commercial arrays can be built, as of 2010, at below
$3.40 a watt fully commissioned.
As the semiconductor industry moved to ever-larger boules, older equipment became
available at fire-sale prices. Cells have grown in size as older equipment became
available on the surplus market; ARCO Solar's original panels used cells with 2 to 4 inch
(50 to 100 mm) diameter. Panels in the 1990s and early 2000s generally used 5 inch
(125 mm) wafers, and since 2008 almost all new panels use 6 inch (150 mm) cells. The
widespread introduction of flat screen televisions in the late 1990s and early 2000s led
to the wide availability of large sheets of high-quality glass, used on the front of the
panels.
During the 1990s, polysilicon cells became increasingly popular. These cells offer less
efficiency than their monosilicon counterparts, but they are grown in large vats that
greatly reduce the cost of production. By the mid-2000s, poly was dominant in the lowcost panel market, but more recently a variety of factors has pushed the higher
performance mono back into widespread use.
Manufacturers of wafer-based cells have responded to high silicon prices in 20042008
prices with rapid reductions in silicon consumption. In 2008, according to Jef
Poortmans, director of IMEC's organic and solar department, current cells use between
eight and nine grams of silicon per watt of power generation, with wafer thicknesses in
the neighborhood of 0.200 mm.

Practical materials
Various materials display varying efficiencies and have varying costs. Materials for efficient solar
cells must have characteristics matched to the spectrum of available ligh
Crystalline silicon

1. monocrystalline silicon (c-Si): often made using the Czochralski process. Singlecrystal wafer cells tend to be expensive,
2. polycrystalline silicon, or multicrystalline silicon, (poly-Si or mc-Si): made from
cast square ingots large blocks of molten silicon carefully cooled and
solidified. Poly-Si cells are less expensive to produce than single crystal silicon
cells, but are less efficient
3. ribbon silicon[29] is a type of polycrystalline silicon: it is formed by drawing flat thin
films from molten silicon and results in a polycrystalline structure. These cells
have lower efficiencies than poly-Si

4. mono-like-multi silicon: Developed in the 2000s and introduced commercially

around 2009, mono-like-multi, or cast-mono, uses existing polycrystalline casting
chambers with small "seeds" of mono material.

Thin films

Thin-film technologies reduce the amount of material required in creating

the active material of solar cell.
1. Cadmium telluride solar cell
2. Copper indium gallium selenide
3. GaAs thin film cells
4. Silicon thin films

Amorphous silicon (a-Si or a-Si:H)

Protocrystalline silicon or

Nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si or nc-Si:H), also called microcrystalline

silicon.
15.5% solar modules from MiaSol hold the flexible PV solar module efficiency record.
16.1% First Solar thin-film solar Panel claim the cadmium-telluride (CdTe) photovoltaic
(PV) module conversion efficiency record. Again, these are generally not used for
residential applications, but I think including them helps to reinforce my key point yet again.
(First Solar, a US-based company, was actually the #1 solar developer and the #2 solar
module manufacturer in the world last year. Despite a relatively low 16.1% record efficiency
in this category of solar panels, First Solar does very well with these relatively cheap solar
modules in certain applications.)
17.4% Q-Cells thin-film solar Panel hold the specific solar panel category. Thin-film solar
panels are widely used, but not in residential applications. (Q-Cells was a German
company, but it filed for insolvency in 2012 and was then acquired by the Korean
company Hanwha.)
21.5% SunPower solar Panel hold the commercial solar module efficiency record. , are
also the leading solar modules in solar module yield field tests
36% efficient Amonix solar modules hold the overall solar PV module efficiency record.
However, these are made with concentrator solar cells and are not used in residential
applications.

32.6% solar cells by junction by a Spanish solar research institute (IES) and
university (UPM) These are another step down, as they are in the two-junction,
concentrator solar cell categoryAgain, these are still far different solar cells from what are
used in commercial or residential installations.
37.9% efficient solar cells by Sharp . Just a step down, these are in the triple-junction,
non-concentrator solar cell category. If this is all new to you, it might take you awhile to see
the difference in the categories. The difference is that these solar cells dont use anything to
concentrate the light hitting the solar cells
44.7% efficient solar cells by Fraunhofer. Notably, these world-leading solar cells from
Fraunhofer are in the concentrator triple-junction solar cell category. Such solar cells are
complicated and are not used in residential or commercial applications because they
are bloody expensive. They are used in space applications by the likes of NASA, where a
bit of extra space (or, as it may be, less space via extra efficiency) can make a huge
difference

Reported timeline of solar cell energy conversion efficiencies (from National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (USA))

Other ways for improving the efficiency

There are many reviews that suggest many ways to improve the solar cells efficiency, consisting
to incorporate lanthanide doped materials (Er3+, Yb3+, Ho3+ or combination of them) on to a solar

cell, taking advantage of their optical properties to convert the infrared radiation to visible light .
This kind of process, calledupconversion, is a luminescence process where two low-energy
infrared photons are absorbed by rare-earth ions to generate a high-energy visible photon. As
example, the energy transfer upconversion process (ETU), consists in successive transfer
processes between excited ions under excitation in the near infrared. Therefore, an excited ion
can reach a high energetic level from which de-excites emitting a visible photon. By this way, an
upconverter material could be placed below the solar cell in order to absorb the infrared light
(not absorbed by the Si) and produce visible photons to excite the solar cell, enhancing its
response to infrared radiation. There are many upconversion materials, but usually they are
doped with lanthanide ions because they are efficient in these upconversion processes. These
ions are most commonly found in the trivalent state and their rich energy level structure over a
broad spectral range explains their numerous applications. Among them, the Er3+ ions have
been the most used. The Er3+ ions absorb the solar radiation around 1.54 m. Two Er3+ ions that
have absorbed this radiation can interact with each other through an upconversion process. The
excited ion emits light above the Si bandgap that is absorbed by the solar cell and creates an
additional electronhole pair that can contribute to generate current. However, the obtained
efficiency of the solar cell was small. In addition, the fluoroindate glasses have shown to have
very low phonon energy and they have been also proposed as suitable matrix doped with
Ho3+ ions in order to improve the efficiency of silicon solar cells, using upconversion processes