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Today’s Solar Power Generating Technologies
Published in Anco S. Blazev, Solar Technologies for the 21st Century, 2021
Amorphous silicon is also thin film silicon, alpha silicon, or a-Si and is used in p-i-n type solar cells. Typical a-Si modules include front side glass, TCO film, thin film silicon, back contact, polyvinyl-butyral (PVB) encapsulant and back side glass. a-Si has been used to power calculators for some time now, mostly because it is easily and cheaply deposited on any substrate.
Renewable Energy Markets
Published in Anco S. Blazev, Global Energy Market Trends, 2021
Amorphous silicon (a-Si) is produced via thin film processes, based on depositing thin layers of silicon films on different substrates. Silicon thin-film cells are mainly deposited by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), typically plasma-enhanced (PE-CVD), using silane and hydrogen reactive and carrier gasses for the actual deposition. Depending on the deposition parameters and the stoichiometry of the process, this reaction can yield different types of thin film structures, such as amorphous silicon (a-Si, or a-Si:H), protocrystalline silicon or nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si or nc-Si:H), also called microcrystalline silicon.
Thin Film Photovoltaic Technologies
Published in Anco S. Blazev, Photovoltaics for Commercial and Utilities Power Generation, 2020
Amorphous silicon (a-Si) is produced via thin film processes, based on depositing thin layers of silicon films on different substrates. Silicon thin-film cells are mainly deposited by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), typically plasma-enhanced (PE-CVD), using silane and hydrogen reactive and carrier gasses for the actual deposition. Depending on the deposition parameters and the stoichiometry of the process, this reaction can yield different types of thin film structures, such as amorphous silicon (a-Si, or a-Si:H), protocrystalline silicon or nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si or nc-Si:H), also called microcrystalline silicon.
Smart energy harvesting performance of photovoltaic roof assemblies in Canadian climate
Published in Intelligent Buildings International, 2021
Sudhakar Molleti, Marianne Armstrong
Apart from shadow, equally important is the diffuse light. Diffuse irradiance is defined as the portion of the sunlight that does not arrive at the surface of interest in a straight line from the sun (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sonnenenergie 2008). Diffuse illumination is the result of scattering by clouds and suspended particles in air. Based on the average wavelength in diffuse solar irradiance, the efficiency of the thin film amorphous silicon is generally considered better than modules of (poly)-crystaline silicon. The present study also evaluated the performance of RIPV under diffuse light as shown in Figure 9. The measured data indicated that the system efficiency of RIPV under diffuse light was similar to the efficiency under direct light demonstrating that thin film amorphous silicon perform well under diffuse light without compromising their efficiency.
LCA study of photovoltaic systems based on different technologies
Published in International Journal of Green Energy, 2018
Weslley M. Soares, Daniel D. Athayde, Eduardo H.M. Nunes
Amorphous silicon (a-Si) has also been used in the production of PV systems (Kichou et al. 2016). These devices are commonly obtained by depositing thin films on a variety of substrates, including glasses, metals, and polymers. In spite of their low-energy conversion efficiency, systems based on a-Si are considered an environmentally friendly technology (Peng, Lu, and Yang 2013). Moreover, it is possible to obtain thinner films when a-Si is used instead of c-Si, which increases its range of applications (Chopra, Paulson, and Dutta 2004). a-Si usually exhibits an expressive defect concentration, which greatly decreases its photoconductivity (Liu, Chu, and Ding 2007). Nonetheless, these drawbacks can be overcome by introducing elements such as hydrogen into a-Si (Liao et al. 2017). Because of its lower production costs when compared to c-Si, a-Si was first employed in the 1990s in several solar-powered devices, including pocket calculators, street lights, and digital watches (Kuwano 1993).
Thermostructural Characterization of Silicon Carbide Nanocomposite Materials via Molecular Dynamics Simulations
Published in Advanced Composite Materials, 2022
Jose M. Ortiz-Roldan, Francisco Montero-Chacón, Elena Garcia-Perez, Sofía Calero, A. Rabdel Ruiz-Salvador, Said Hamad
Amorphous silicon has encountered novel applications in solar cells, optoelectronics and Li-batteries [11–13], as well. The irruption of silicon in anodes for Li-batteries in the late 90s [14] generated an avalanche in Si-related research for advanced [15] batteries. In many cases, Si anodes were prepared as composites with C[16]. The combination of these two materials leads to composites with very attractive properties. Although SiC is regarded as electrochemically inactive, its mechanical strength has been identified as a route to the needed robustness demanded for fabricating safe and long-lasting battery electrodes [17–20]. Moreover, the interface Si/SiC has been recently identified as a chemical barrier protective coating for Li anodes[21].