INTRODUCTION AND MODELLING

OF SOLAR POWER PLANT

Boopathy.K

Dept of EEE, AVIT 1

 OUT LINE OF PRESENTATION

 Introduction
 Photovoltaic effect
 Electron-hole formation
 A solar panel (or) solar array
 Types of Solar cell
 Principle, construction and working of Solar cell
 Advantage, disadvantage and application

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 Introduction

Solar cell: Solar cell is a photovoltaic device that converts the light energy into
electrical energy based on the principles of photovoltaic effect

Albert Einstein was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in physics for his research on the photoelectric
effect—a phenomenon central to the generation of electricity through solar cells.

In the early stages, the solar cell was developed only with 4 to 6 % efficiency( because of inadequate
materials and problems in focusing the solar radiations). But, after 1989, the solar cells with more than
50% efficiency was developed.
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 Three generations of solar cells

First generation cells consist of large-area, high quality

and single junction devices.

First Generation technologies involve high energy and

labour inputs which prevent any significant progress in
reducing production costs.

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 Second Generation

Second generation materials have been developed to

address energy requirements and production costs of
solar cells.

Alternative manufacturing techniques such as vapour

deposition and electroplating are advantageous as they
reduce high temperature processing significantly

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 Materials for Solar cell

Solar cells are composed of various semiconducting materials

1. Crystalline silicon
2. Cadmium telluride
3. Copper indium diselenide
4. Gallium arsenide
5. Indium phosphide
6. Zinc sulphide

Note: Semiconductors are materials, which become electrically

conductive when supplied with light or heat, but which operate as
insulators at low temperatures

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 • If two differently contaminated semiconductor layers are
combined, then a so-called p-n-junction results on the boundary of
the layers.
p-n junction layer

n-type semiconductor

p- type semiconductor

• By doping trivalent element, we get p-type semiconductor. (with

excess amount of hole)

• By doping pentavalent element, we get n-type semiconductor (

with excess amount of electron)
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 Photovoltaic Effect
Light
Definition: energy
The generation of
voltage across the
PN junction in a
semiconductor due n-type semiconductor
to the absorption of Electrical
Power
light radiation is p- type semiconductor
called photovoltaic
effect. The Devices
based on this effect
p-n junction
is called photovoltaic
device.
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 ELECTRON-HOLE FORMATION

• Photovoltaic energy conversion relies on the number of photons strikes on the

earth. (photon is a flux of light particles)

• On a clear day, about 4.4 x 1017 photons strike a square centimeter of the
Earth's surface every second.

• Only some of these photons - those with energy in excess of the band gap - can be
converted into electricity by the solar cell.

• When such photon enters the semiconductor, it may be absorbed and promote
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an electron from the valence band to the conduction band.

 Conduction band

electron

Photons

hole
Valence band

• Therefore, a vacant is created in the valence band and it is

called hole.
• Now, the electron in the conduction band and hole in
valence band combine together and forms electron-hole pairs.
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 4. A solar panel (or) Solar array
Single solar cell
• The single solar cell constitute the n-typpe layer sandwiched
with p-type layer.
• The most commonly known solar cell is configured as a
large-area p-n junction made from silicon wafer.
• A single cell can produce only very tiny amounts of electricity
• It can be used only to light up a small light bulb or power a
calculator.
• Single photovoltaic cells are used in many small electronic
appliances such as watches and calculators
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 Single Solar cell

N-type

P-type

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 Solar panel (or) solar array (or) Solar module

The solar panel (or) solar array is the interconnection of number of

solar module to get efficient power.

• A solar module consists of number of interconnected solar cells.

• These interconnected cells embedded between two glass plate to
protect from the bad whether.
• Since absorption area of module is high, more energy can be
produced.
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 Types of Solar cell

Based on the types of crystal used, soar cells can be classified as,
1. Monocrystalline silicon cells
2. Polycrystalline silicon cells
3. Amorphous silicon cells
1. The Monocrystalline silicon cell is produced from pure
silicon (single crystal). Since the Monocrystalline silicon is
pure and defect free, the efficiency of cell will be
higher.
2. In polycrystalline solar cell, liquid silicon is used as raw material
and polycrystalline silicon was obtained followed by solidification
process. The materials contain various crystalline sizes. Hence,
the efficiency of this type of cell is less than Monocrystalline cell.
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 3. Amorphous silicon was obtained by depositing silicon film on
the substrate like glass plate.

•The layer thickness amounts to less than 1µm – the thickness

of a human hair for comparison is 50-100 µm.

•The efficiency of amorphous cells is much lower than that of

the other two cell types.

• As a result, they are used mainly in low power equipment,

such as watches and pocket calculators, or as facade
elements.
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 Comparison of Types of solar cell

Material Efficiency (%)

Monocrystalline silicon 14-17

Polycrystalline silicon 13-15

Amorphous silicon 5-7

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 Principle, construction and working of Solar cell

Principle: The solar cells are based on the principles of

photovoltaic effect.The photovoltaic effect is the photogeneration of
charge carriers in a light absorbing materials as a result of absorption
of light radiation.

Construction
• Solar cell (crystalline Silicon) consists of a n-type semiconductor
(emitter) layer and p-type semiconductor layer (base). The two layers
are sandwiched and hence there is formation of p-n junction.
• The surface is coated with anti-refection coating to avoid the loss
of incident light energy due to reflection.
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• A proper metal contacts are made on the n-type and p- type side
of the semiconductor for electrical connection
Working:
• When a solar panel exposed to sunlight , the light energies are
absorbed by a semiconduction materials.
• Due to this absorded enrgy, the electrons are libereted and
produce the external DC current.
• The DC current is converted into 240-volt AC current using an
inverter for different applications.
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 Mechanism:
• First, the sunlight is absorbed by a solar cell in a solar panel.
• The absorbed light causes electrons in the material to increase
in energy. At the same time making them free to move around in
the material.
• However, the electrons remain at this higher energy for only a
short time before returning to their original lower energy
position.
• Therefore, to collect the carriers before they lose the energy
gained from the light, a PN junction is typically used.

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• A PN junction consists of two different regions of a semiconductor material
(usually silicon), with one side called the p type region and the other the n-
type region.
• During the incident of light energy, in p-type material, electrons can gain
energy and move into the n-type region.
• Then they can no longer go back to their original low energy position and
remain at a higher energy.
• The process of moving a light- generated carrier from p-type region to n-type
region is called collection.
• These collections of carriers (electrons) can be either extracted from the
device to give a current, or it can remain in the device and gives rise to a
voltage.
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 The mechanism of electricity production- Different stages

Conduction band High density

Valence band Low density

The above diagram shows the formation of p-n junction in a solar

cell. The valence band is a low-density band and conduction
band is high-density band.
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 Stage-1
When light falls on the semiconductor surface, the electron
from valence band promoted to conduction band.
Therefore, the hole
(vacancy position left
by the electron in the Conduction band High density
valence band) is
generates. Hence, there
is a formation of
E
electron-hole pair on
the sides of p-n
junction. Valence band Low density

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 Stage-2
In the stage 2, the electron and holes are diffuse across the
p-n junction and there is a formation of electron-hole pair.

Conduction band High density

junction
E

Valence band Low density

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 Stage-3
In the stage 3, As electron continuous to diffuse, the negative
charge build on emitter side and positive charge build on the
base side.

Conduction band High density

junction
E

Valence band Low density

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 Stage-4
When the PN junction is connected with external circuit, the
current flows.

Conduction band High density

junction
E

Valence band Low density Power

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 Advantage, disadvantage and application of Solar cell

Advantage
• It is clean and non-polluting
• It is a renewable energy
• Solar cells do not produce noise and they are totally silent.
• They require very little maintenance
• They are long lasting sources of energy which can be used
almost anywhere
• They have long life time
• There are no fuel costs or fuel supply problems

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 Disadvantage

• Soar power can be obtained in night time

• Soar cells (or) solar panels are very expensive

• Energy has not be stored in batteries

• Air pollution and whether can affect the production of electricity

• They need large are of land to produce more efficient power supply

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 Applications
• Soar pumps are used for water supply.
• Domestic power supply for appliances include refrigeration,
washing machine, television and lighting
• Ocean navigation aids: Number of lighthouses and most
buoys are powered by solar cells
• Telecommunication systems: radio transceivers on mountain
tops, or telephone boxes in the country can often be solar
powered
• Electric power generation in space: To providing electrical
power to satellites in an orbit around the Earth
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 PV SYSTEM DESIGN

A solar PV system design can be done in four steps:

 Load estimation
 Estimation of number of PV panels
 Estimation of battery bank
 Cost estimation of the system.
 Base condition:2 CFLs(18 watts each),2 fans (60 watts each) for 6hrs a day.

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 Step :1

The total energy requirement of the system (total

load) i.e Total connected load to PV panel system
= No. of units × rating of equipment = 2 × 18
+ 2 × 60
= 156 watts

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 Step :2
Total watt-hours rating of the system
= Total connected load (watts) × Operating hours
= 156 × 6 = 936 watt-hours

Actual power output of a PV panel = Peak power rating

× operating factor = 40 × 0.75 = 30 watt
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 Step :3
The power used at the end use is less (due to lower
combined efficiency of the system
= Actual power output of a panel × combined
efficiency
= 30 × 0.81 = 24.3 watts (VA)
= 24.3 watts

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 Step :4

Energy produced by one 40 Wp panel in a day

= Actual power output × 8 hours/day (peak equivalent)
= 24.3 × 8 = 194.4 watts-hour

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 Step :5
Number of solar panels required to satisfy given
estimated daily load :
= (Total watt-hour rating (daily load)/(Daily energy
produced by a panel)
=936/194.4 = 4.81 = 5 (round figure)

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 Step :6
Inverter size is to be calculated as :
Total connected load to PV panel system = 156 watts
Inverter are available with rating of 100, 200, 500
VA, etc.
Therefore, the choice of the inverter should be 200
VA.

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Step :7-COST ESTIMATION OF A PV SYSTEM

Cost of arrays = No. of PV modules × Cost/Module

= 5 × 8000 (for a 40 Wp panel @ Rs.200/Wp)

= Rs.40000

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Step :8
Cost of batteries = No. of Batteries × Cost/Module
=1 × 7500= Rs.7500
(c) Cost of Inverter = No. of inverters × Cost/Inverter =
1 × 5000 = 1 × 5000 = Rs.5000

Total cost of system = A + B + C = 40000 + 7500 + 5000 =

Rs.52500
[Additional cost of wiring may be taken as 5% of total
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system cost]
Step :9 ASSUMPTIONS TAKEN FOR DESIGN
 Inverter converts DC into AC power with efficiency of
about 90%.
 Battery voltage used for operation = 12 volts
 The combined efficiency of inverter and battery will
be calculated as :
combined efficiency = inverter efficiency × battery
efficiency = 0.9 × 0.9 = 0.81 = 81%
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 Step 10:
 Sunlight available in a day = 8 hours/day (equivalent
of peak radiation.

 Operation of lights and fan = 6 hours/day of PV

panels.

 PV panel power rating = 40 Wp (Wp, meaning, watt

(peak), gives only peak power output of a PV panel)
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 Step :11
 A factor called „ operating factor‟ is used to
estimate the actual output from a PV module.
[The operating factor between 0.60 and 0.90 (implying
the output power is 60 to 80% lower than rated output
power) in normal operating conditions, depending on
temperature, dust on module, etc.]

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Thank you for kind attention

Have a Solar happy day

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