Photovoltaic Effect

In 1839, 19-year old French physicist Alexandre Edmond Becquerel discovered that certain materials would produce small amounts of electric current when exposed to light. This basic physical process of using light to generate an electric current is known as the photovoltaic effect.

Solar Cell
To produce a solar cell, the semiconductor is contaminated or "doped". "Doping" is the intentional introduction of chemical elements, with which one can obtain a surplus of either positive charge carriers (pconducting semiconductor layer) or negative charge carriers (n-conducting semiconductor layer) from the semiconductor material. If two differently contaminated semiconductor layers are combined, then a socalled p-n-junction results on the boundary of the layers. At this junction, an interior electric field is built up which leads to the separation of the charge carriers that are released by light. Through metal contacts, an electric charge can be tapped. If the outer circuit is closed, meaning a consumer is connected, then direct current flows. Silicon cells are approximately 10 cm by 10 cm large (recently also 15 cm by 15 cm). A transparent antireflection film protects the cell and decreases reflective loss on the cell surface.

The usable voltage from solar cells depends on the semiconductor material. In silicon it amounts to approximately 0.5 V. Terminal voltage is only weakly dependent on light radiation, while the current intensity increases with higher luminosity. A 100 cm silicon cell, for example, reaches a maximum current intensity of approximately 2 A when radiated by 1000 W/m. The output (product of electricity and voltage) of a solar cell is temperature dependent. Higher cell temperatures lead to lower output, and hence to lower efficiency. The level of efficiency indicates how much of the radiated quantity of light is converted into useable electrical energy.

Material

Level of efficiency in % Level of efficiency Lab Production

in

Monocrystalline Silicon

approx. 24

14 to17 13 to15 5 to7

Polycrystalline Silicon approx. 18 Amorphous Silicon approx. 13

Types of Photovoltaic Cells

There are three primary types of photovoltaic cells made from silicon:

Monocrystalline Cells
Monocrystalline PV Cells are made by slicing thin wafers from a single long silicon crystal rod. These cells are highly efficient (15-18%) but expensive to manufacture due to the long, expensive process of creating silicon crystals and the high grade of silicon used.

Monocrystalline Photovoltaic Cell

Polycrystalline Photovoltaic Cells

Polycrystalline PV Cells are made from more than one silicon crystal. They are formed when molten silicon is poured into a mold and cooled to form an ingot. The ingot is then cut into smaller sections, each of which is then sliced into thin wafers.

Polycrystalline Photovoltaic Cell

Polycrystalline PV Cells are slightly less efficient (12-14%) than monocrystalline PV cells. However, they are also less expensive to manufacture since they use smaller crystals which are easier and quicker to grow than the single crystals used in monocrystalline PV cells.

Amorphous Silicon
Amorphous Silicon is the oldest thin film solar cell technology. It is a silicon alloy that is deposited directly onto the backing material, usually either glass or metal. Compared to crystalline photovoltaic cells, amorphous silicon is less efficient (5-6%), but the material costs and manufacturing costs are also much lower. Basic Elements of a Solar Electric system 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Solar Panel Mounting Structure and accessories Battery Bank Charge Controller Wiring Cable Inverter (To convert ac to dc) Isolation switch.

Some tips for planning a grid-connected PV system

- Required module space: Within bigger systems mostly crystalline silicon modules are used today. To install a nominal capacity of 1 kWp (Kilowatt Peak) with such modules an area between about 7 m (using monocrystalline cells) and 10 m (using polycrystalline cells) is required.Otherwise unused pitched roofs are in many cases the most costefficient places to install a PV system, especially if they are oriented to south and inclined to a degree of about 30 to 37.

- PV Orientation and Output The efficiency of the photovoltaic process is at its highest if the sun rays hit the panel vertically. Therefore PV modules should be oriented to south (speaking of the northern hemisphere) and somewhat inclined; the optimal inclination angle depends on the location (including latitude, altitude and other factors). As a rule of thumb the inclination angle would be best between 3/4 and 4/5 of the latitude resulting in angles of 32 to 38 in Middle and Western Europe or 30 to 36 in most of the US. However: Small divergences from the optimal orientation and inclination result only in even smaller reductions of energy output per year

The azimuth angle () in the picture at right) specifies how many degrees the surface of the module or collector diverges from the exact south-facing direction. The tilt angle () specifies the divergence from the horizontal. Experiments show that photovoltaic systems operate most effectively with an azimuth angle of about 0 and a tilt angle of about 30. Of course small variances in these values are not at all problematic: with the system oriented towards the south-east or south-west, about 95 % of the highest possible amount of light can still be absorbed. Large systems with arrays are fitted with electric motors which track the sun in order to optimize output.

Voltage and current

Two important quantities to characterize a solar cell are Open circuit voltage (Voc): The voltage between the terminals when no current is drawn (infinte load resistance) Short circuit current (Isc): The current when the terminals are connected to eachother (zero load resistance)

The short circuit current increases with light intensity, as higher intensity means more photons, which in turn means more electrons. Since the short circuit current Isc is roughly proportional to the area of the solar cell, the short circuit current density, Jsc = Isc/A, is often used to compare solar cells. When a load is connected to the solar cell, the current decreases and a voltage develops as charge builds up at the terminals. The resulting current can be viewed as a superposition of the short circuit current, caused by the absorbtion of photons, and a dark current, which is caused by the potential built up over the load and flows in the opposite direction. As a solar cell contains a PN-junction (LINK), just as a diode, it may be treated as a diode. For an ideal diode, the dark current density is given by

(1.1) Here J0 is a constant, q is the electron charge and V is the voltage between the terminals. The resulting current can be approximated as a superposition of the short circuit current and the dark current:

(1.2) To find an expression for the open circuit voltage, Voc, we use (1.2) setting J = 0. This means that the two currents cancel out so that no current flows, which exactly is the case in an open circuit. The resulting expression is

(1.3)

1.1.1 Efficiency
In general, the power delivered from a power source is P = IV, i.e. the product of voltage and current. If we instead use the current density J, we get the power density: (1.4) The maximum power density occurs somewhere between V = 0 (short circuit) and V = Voc (open circuit) at a voltage Vm. The corresponding current density is called Jm, and thus the maximum power density is Pd,m = Jm Vm.

Figure 2: Maximum power The efficiency of a solar cell is defined as the power (density) output divided by the power (density) output. If the incoming light has a power density Ps, the efficiency will be

(1.5) The fill factor, FF, is another quantity which is used to characterize a solar cell. It is defined as

(1.6) and gives a measure of how much of the open circuit voltage and short circuit current is "utilized" at maximum power. Using FF we can express the efficiency as

(1.7) The four quantities Jsc, Voc, FF and are frequently used to characterize the performance of a solar cell. They are often measured under standard lighting conditions, which implies Air Mass 1.5 spectrum, light flux of 1000W/m2 and temperature of 25C.

1.2 Equivalent circuit of a solar cell

The solar cell can be seen as a current generator which generates the current (density) Jsc. The dark current flows in the opposite direction and is caused by a potential between the + and - terminals. In addition you would have two resistances; one in series (Rs) and one in parallel (Rp). The series resistance is caused by the fact that a solar cell is not a perfect conductor. The parallel resistance is caused by leakage of current from one

terminal to the other due to poor insulation, for example on the edges of the cell. In an ideal solar cell, you would have Rs = 0 and Rp = . When these socalled parasitic resistances are included, the current expression (1.3) becomes

(1.8)