Analysis and Description of Photovoltaic Cells

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Photovoltaic cells are found everywhere today: your home, work buildings, schools, and more. There are two types of Photovoltaic Cells: Organic and Inorganic. The type of cell that are most often found and used are inorganic cells. Inorganic cells are known to produce much more energy than organic cells. Although the main element used in these inorganic cells is Silicon, there are many more elements that are used in inorganic photovoltaic cells. There is monocrystalline, polycrystalline, amorphous, and microcrystalline Si, the III-V compounds and alloys, CdTe, and the chalcopyrite compound, copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS). These photovoltaic cells are built for large scale power generations. All of these semiconductors have energy band gaps between 1.1-1.7 eV. The use of Crystalline Si cells have continued to increase, but the polycrystalline has shown much more potential. Crystalline cells have an indirect band gap energy*. This results in the low optical absorption coefficient. Because of this, the wafers used in the structure needs to be greater than 200µm so that it can absorb the incident light. There is also the problem of the high resistivity of the screen printed Ag grids, high contact resistance between the grid and Si, and also a reduce in the efficiency of the device down to approximately 14%. The Crystalline Si cells are found to have a need for a concentrator system for the cell to be able to produce its full potential. Multicrystalline cells have the advantage of using its growth which reduces the cost, rises the throughput, has less sensitivity, and also raises the density of the cells to make a module because of its rectangular shape. These cells, however, result in lower efficiencies than those made from ... ... middle of paper ... ...and is less expensive than indium tin oxide. All of these points help the conductive glass become more convenient to this experiment. Like all experiments, this contains numerous amounts of theories. The goal of this section of this paper is to explain such theories that exist in this world today. You might ask- what does this have to do with that or how does this affect that- this paper is also written to give you an explanation of the procedure that will take place in this experiment and to provide you knowledge needed when doing this experiment. All these theories shall be explained in the steps that were taken to successfully complete this experiment. Works Cited http://chemistry.beloit.edu/classes/nanotech/solar/mattoday10_11_20.pdf (Forbes) http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/30952.pdf (Dubay) http://www.solar-facts-and-advice.com/cadmium-telluride.html (SBI)

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