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Solar PV System for Green Energy Applications: A Review

Article  in  IET Renewable Power Generation · May 2016

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 The 15th Annual Power Symposium 2016”, IET Journal of Power Systems & Applications, The Institute of
Engineering & Technology (IET), UK, 2016

Solar PV System for Green Energy Applications: A Review

Clarence Augustine TH Tee* †
* Dept of Electrical & Electronics Engineering And Electronics & Communications Engineeering, Manipal International
University, Malaysia, catht2@gmail.com; clarence.augustine@miu.edu.my;
†
T-Capital Industry Inc, Stanford, USA.

Keywords: Photovoltaic (PV), Power Conversion Efficiency
(PCE), Nanostructured Solar Cells, Return of Investments
(ROIs), Tunable Bandgap.
Abstract
cost-effective way to provide power to remote areas and for
space applications. Some of the technical, economical and
infrastructural features of PV show that PV helps to avoid
most of the threats associated with our present techniques of
electricity production and also has many other benefits [1].

Past decade has seen solar energy demonstrating remarkable 2 Motivations

growth as one of the significant sources of global renewable
energy. Since 2004, the solar energy industry has increased
53-fold in capacity. Thus, contributing to energy security by
providing more diversity in the energy supply and reducing
the dependency of fossil fuels which would reduce fuel
import bills for many countries apart from the benefits of
environmental protection. This paper will present an
overview landscape and trends of PV technology, challenges
and potential globally and within the economic and
technology constraints. Real case studies and lessons learnt
are discussed and presented where appropriate in the local
context in comparison with international standards and
practises. Of particular interest to our presentation would be
on the 3rd generation high efficiency solar cell with advanced
concepts and new approach of breaking the 31% efficiency
limits. With this new design approach of high efficiency
PVs, the realisation of solar energy’s access and affordability
would ensure continuous growth of solar green energy as an
affordable renewable energy source.
1 Introduction
Since 1970s, solar electricity (PV energy) has proved itself as
a competitive, sustainable and alternative renewable energy
source vis-à-vis fossil fuels or nuclear fission reactions [1].
The Sun provides a staggering amount of free,
environmentally friendly, quiet and reliable energy supply.
Earth’s oil supply estimated at 3 trillion barrels and
potentially could generate 1.7x1022 joules of energy, yet the
Sun could deliver the same amount of energy to our planet in
just 1.5 days [2]. On average, 120,000 TW of solar radiation
delivered to the surface of the Earth; if only 10% efficient
solar conversion systems covering 0.16% of the land then a
staggering 20 TW of power would be produced i.e. nearly
double the annual global energy consumption [3]. With the
growth of PV industry at the rate of more than 40% yearly
[4], the needs of PV with high efficiency cells are even
getting more important and gaining global attention as high
efficiency PV cells may help solar industry growing even
faster. Also, a higher efficiency cell increases the value of the
rest of the system. Furthermore, PV can generate electricity
for a wide range of applications, scales, and climates; it is a
Light emitted by the sun and falling on Earth is one of the
most plentiful energy resources on the planet. Over 1.5x1022 J
(15 000 EJ) of solar energy reach Earth every day, compared
to a daily energy consumption of approximately 1.3 EJ by
human activity. However, solar radiation is a broadly
distributed energy resource both in terms of geographic
distance, requiring large, expensive collectors, and in terms of
its wide range of wavelengths. The highest efficiency solar
cells will absorb each colour of light with a material that has a
band gap equals to the photon energy. Recent development of
novel solar architectures involving cross disciplines approach
have seen a remarkable progress and displaced the single p-n
junction solar cells approach. Advancement of technologies
especially in photo-electro-chemical cells, multi-junction
cells, organic-inorganic hybrid cells and various
nanostructured architectures have a common aim of targeting
to break away the efficiency limits observed by Shockley-
Queisser limit i.e. around ~34% for the efficiency of a single-
junction solar cell under un-concentrated sunlight. The
motivation for higher efficiency is to achieve grid parity for
solar PV adoption and also one of the important factors to
consider when calculating the Levelised Cost of Electricity
(LCOE) metric. With the current cost of PV approaching
about $1/Wp, the average cost to the consumer is
$~0.10/kWh, which is comparable to the average cost for grid
electricity in the US [5]. This paper will review the current
technologies especially on the high efficiency solar cells
which have exceeded 45% PCE and those with potential to go
beyond >50%. Of particular interest here is the promise of
nanostructured solar cells with opportunities to revolutionise
the conversion of solar energy by enabling highly efficient
and low-cost devices while challenges such as high efficiency
and stability are being addressed.
3 PV Technology Roadmap
The 1st generation solar cells are mono-crystalline type of Si
p-n junction which commonly used in the market. The highest
efficiency to date under this technology is at 24.7% under
standard test condition (STC) with limitations of energy
decreases at higher wavelengths, radiation effect leads to

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