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Most Promising Solar Technologies
Published in Anco S. Blazev, Solar Technologies for the 21st Century, 2021
Basically, polycrystalline silicon has much lower efficiency than monocrystalline silicon, but it is much cheaper and efficient to produce. At $20/Kg polycrystalline silicon castings per batch, vs. the $60/Kg batch of a Czochralski (CZ) process monocrystalline silicon, not to mention the related complexity of the latter process.
Photovoltaics
Published in Volker Quaschning, Understanding Renewable Energy Systems, 2016
To increase the efficiency of solar cells, monocrystalline material can be made from polycrystalline silicon. Two methods are used: seed crystal is pulled out of molten silicon in the Czochralski process; the other process is called zone melting. The seed crystal is dipped into molten polycrystalline silicon to produce the desired monocrystalline precursor material. The grain boundaries disappear, thereby reducing losses within the cell.
Potential Utilization of Nanofluids for Concentrating Solar Power (CSP)
Published in K.R.V. Subramanian, Tubati Nageswara Rao, Avinash Balakrishnan, Nanofluids and Their Engineering Applications, 2019
Amine Allouhi, Mahmut Sami Buker
Since invention, photovoltaic cells have constituted a significant portion of the worldwide installation and now totaling around 400 GW of global cumulative installed capacity [8]. These cells are made of semi-conducting materials to convert solar energy directly into electricity using photoelectric and electrochemical processes. The most efficient commercially available solar panels have efficiency ratings as high as 22%, whereas majority of the panels on the market today range from 15% to 17% efficiency ratings. Based on the efficiency ratings, PV technology can be subdivided into monocrystalline, polycrystalline, and thin film solar PV modules. Generally, monocrystalline silicon solar PV is the best technology to deliver maximum efficiency, which is typically around 15%, but this efficiency can come with cost due to the complicated manufacturing process. Due to the impurities in crystal, polycrystalline silicon is less efficient comparing to the monocrystalline, which is around 12%. However, simpler manufacturing process consumes less energy and materials, giving it a significant cost advantage over monocrystalline silicon. Thin-film solar PV technology is an ideal option for the applications with lightweight and portability, but lesser power requirements. Thin film cells can be constructed from a variety of materials including amorphous silicon (a-Si), cadmium telluride (CdTe), and copper indium gallium selenide (CIS-CIGS). As an emerging technology, thin-film panels are less efficient around 6%, but it tends to be easier and cheaper to produce [9]. Figure 17.2 illustrates the efficiency chart for various PV cell technologies.
Investigation of hydrogen effect on phosphorus-doped polysilicon thin films
Published in Surface Engineering, 2020
Meryem Mekhalfa, Beddiaf Zaidi, Bouzid Hadjoudja, Baghdadi Chouial, Allaoua Chibani
Polycrystalline silicon is among the materials that have a very important part in the industry, particularly for the manufacture of electronic components, integrated circuits and solar cells [1–6]. However, this material is characterised by a low photovoltaic efficiency in comparison with mono-crystalline silicon, due to the presence of grain boundaries. These boundaries increase sensibly the series resistance which leads to the decrease of the photovoltaic performances of the devices whose improvement and properties control are required [7–10]. The low efficiency of photovoltaic solar cells based on polycrystalline silicon films is mainly due to the electronic activity of the grain boundaries, because of the high density of recombination centres which lead to the attenuation of the minority carriers collection process. Generally, the polycrystalline silicon thin films contain a large number of grain boundaries which play a dual role as trapping centres of carriers and potential barriers for minority carriers’ passage, thus limiting the photovoltaic efficiency [11]. To improve the electronic quality of these thin films, several operations were used: doping, heat treatments and passivation by hydrogen [12–15]. In this paper, we investigated the effect of hydrogen on phosphorus doped polysilicon thin films.
Photovoltaic System as Source of Power In Residential Buildings: Technical and Economical Study
Published in Energy Engineering, 2018
Ehab Hussein Bani-Hani, Ahmad Sedaghat, Abdulrahman Faisal, Abdullatif Al-Methen, Ahmad Al-Bannaw, Reyadh Al-Mosabeeh, Hamad Al-Otaibi
Only two of the solar panel types are available in the Kuwait market: Monocrystalline and polycrystalline. Monocrystalline solar panels are made of cylindrically shaped silicon nuggets. The characteristic wafer-like look of monocrystalline panels is due to the cost effective and performance optimization technique of cutting out the four sides of the cylindrical nuggets. Polycrystalline silicon, which is also known as polysilicon (p-Si) and multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si), manufactured by melting raw silicon and poured into a square mold, which is cooled and cut into perfectly square wafers. The system components include a PV panel to convert sunlight directly to DC electric power, a DC/AC inverter, and a battery to store the energy and use it back when there is no sunlight. The last component, the charge controller, is used to insure the batteries are fully charged, to protect them from overcharge and to increase their lifetime.
Patterning of nanopillars-based CdS/CdTe thin films for photonic applications
Published in Surface Engineering, 2018
Murugaiya Sridar Ilango, Sheela K. Ramasesha
Photovoltaic (PV) technology is mainly dominated by monocrystalline and polycrystalline silicon (Si) solar cells owing to the low cost of production and abundant availability of material [1]. Even though solar panels have become cheaper over the years, they are still not economically viable. There is a need for improving the efficiency and reducing the cost of PV plants. Thin-film PV technology such as cadmium telluride, dye sensitised, organic and copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) are capable of competing with silicon modules with respect to cost and efficiency.