Master in Materials Science:

Materials for Micro and Nano Technologies

Class Presentation on

Photovoltaics (Solar Electricity)

By

Sana Ullah
Student Master in Materials Science

IUSS

Pavia - Italy

June 12, 2008

 Summary

1. What is Photovoltaics (PV)

2. Basis of PV Operation
3. Solar Cells
3.1 Solar Cell Structure
3.2 Absorption of Light
3.3 Generation of Electricity
4. Different Cell Types
5. Efficiency Limitations
6. Goals of on-going research
7. Potential of PV
 What is Photovoltaics ?

Technology of generating direct current electrical power

from semiconductors when they are illuminated by
photons

Solar Cell (an Individual photovoltaics element) is used

to generate this power

Sources: Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ISBN: 0-471-49196-9
 Basis of PV Operation

Solar Cell is an indiviudual PV element.

Electrons from valence band are moved to conduction

band by application of energy exceeding band gap

This energy needed to free the electrons could be

supplied by photons

Sources: Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ISBN: 0-471-49196-9
 Solar Cell
model of a crystalline solar cell

Sources: The Solarserver Forum for Solar Energy, www.solarserver.de

 Solar Cell Structure
• Consists of two layers of semiconductor material, one p-type and one n-
type sandwiched to form a pn-junction
• Metal grid allows light fall on semiconductor
• Antireflection layer increases amont of light transmitted

Sources: Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ISBN: 0-471-49196-9
 Absorption of Light

Creation of electron-hole pair via absorption of sunlight

Both the total energy and momentum of particles

involved must be conserved

Direct excitation from valence to conduction band is

called fundamental absorption

Sources: Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ISBN: 0-471-49196-9
 Absorption of Light
Direct band-gap semiconductors
In direct band gap semiconductors, like GaAs, GaInP, CdTe, etc.
both energy and momentum are conserved in the transition

Photon absorption in a direct band gap semiconductor for an incident photon

with energy hν = E2 − E1 > EG

Sources: Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ISBN: 0-471-49196-9
 Absorption of Light
Indirect band-gap semiconductors
Light absorption is facilitated by either absorption or emission of a
Phonon

Photon absorption in an indirect band gap semiconductor for a photon with energy hν < E2 − E1 and
a photon with energy hν > E2 − E1. Energy and momentum in each case are conserved by the
absorption and emission of a phonon, respectively

Sources: Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ISBN: 0-471-49196-9
 Generation of Electricity

Electrons are pumped by photons from valence band to the conduction

band. There they are extracted by a contact selective to the conduction
band (an n-doped semiconductor) at a higher (free) energy and delivered
to the outside world via wires, where they do some useful work, then are
returned to the valence band at a lower (free) energy by a contact selective
to the valence band ( a p-type semiconductor)

Sources: Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ISBN: 0-471-49196-9
 Different Cell Types
About 90% of the PV production consists of Silicon Semiconductor because of

tremendous scientific and technical infrastructure available

Silicon band-gap of 1.1 eV is almost optimum to make a good
solar converter
Si is one of the most abundant minerals in the earth’s crust

Three types of cells according to the technologies

1. Mono Crystalline Silicon

2. Multi Crystalline Silicon
3. Amorphous Silicon

Sources: Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ISBN: 0-471-49196-9
 Different Cell Types

Distribution of the PV market by technologies

Sources: Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ISBN: 0-471-49196-9
 Different Cell Types

Sources: The Solarserver Forum for Solar Energy, www.solarserver.de

 Efficiency Limitations
 Different semiconductors or combination are suited only for specific
spectral ranges

 Certain amount of energy is transformed into heat

 There are optical losses, such as shadowing or reflection

 Electrical resistance losses in semiconductors and connecting cables

 Disrupting influence of contamination, surface effects, crystal defects,

etc.

Sources: The Solarserver Forum for Solar Energy, www.solarserver.de

 Goals of current research
1. Use less expensive semiconductor materials. These tend to be less
pure and less perfect with improved performance
2. Even with this poorer material keep a high production yield, that is,
reduce the number of cells or modules rejected by the quality
control.
3. Increase material utilization by reducing waste in semiconductor
and cell fabrication
4. Increase solar cell flux on the solar cells by using concentrators
without increasing cost or optical losses too much. In this way, less
semiconductor material is used.
5. Increase solar radiation utilization by absorbing more of the
spectrum efficiently
6. Increase speed and throughput of manufacturing processes
7. Simplify processing steps (this reduces fabrication costs and
increases the yield) and reduce equipment costs
8. Reduce costs and improve reliability of auxiliary elements.

Sources: Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ISBN: 0-471-49196-9
 Current Use and Potential of PV : a comparison

Resource Current use Technical Theoretical

potential potential
HydroPower 9 50 147

Biomass 50 >276 2900

energy
Solar 0.1 >1575 3900 000
energy
Wind 0.12 640 6000
energy
For comparison: global primary energy demand 402 exajoule / annum Units: exajoule per year

Sources: Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ISBN: 0-471-49196-9
Thanks