The Recent Developments in Solar Energy Materials:

Abstract:

The article is about one of the world’s most important topics: energy. In this
aspect definition of sustainable and efficient energy is included in the article as well as
how to maintain this kinds of energy. In this aspect, recent developments in the energy
sector are researched and added to this paper. Detailed information about solar energy
and solar panels which are one of the most relevant concepts in terms of sustainable
energy is given in this article. Under which circumstances increasing the efficiency,
decreasing the cost, and making the energy more sustainable are searched. For this case,
the materials used in the energy-related devices such as solar cells are included in the
paper as well as how do they ensure to get better energy. Specific information about the
perovskite materials is also included in the paper.

Introduction:

Erkcan Ozcan, a worldwide nuclear phsycists, says “Energy is the currency of the
universe.” When we think about anything we do in our daily life, lots of energy is
consumed in terms of electrical, mechanical, thermal, etc.. That’s why using energy
sources efficiently for generating the best energy is very important. After the industrial
revolution in 18th century, the world’s need for energy increased rapidly. During the 19th
and 20th centuries, forssil fuels keep an important role as energy sources. However, when
their biological and chemical damage to the earth was understood and the fact that they
don’t supply energy as an infinite energy source are considered, the importance of
sustainable energy has been understood better. Sustainable energy is the kind of energy
that fulfills the needs of the present world without narrowing the ability of the future
world to fulfill their own needs. Shortly, it is the energy that comes from renewable
sources and does not damage the earth. Starting from the second half of the 20th century,
humanity verged to find ways to use renewable energy sources.

The fact that the sunlight that hits the world in one hour has actually provides the
amount of energy which can meet the whole world’s energy need per year is very
interesting. That’s why humanity decided to use this potential of Sun and, thus,
developments in solar energy gained speed. In a solar system, when the light hits the
solar cell’s layer, the impact between the photons and the solar cell causes an electron
motion to start on the layer which causes an electric current to be form. As a result,
electricity is formed from the sun’s light energy. For years, silicon as a material is used in
these layers widely thourught the world, however, in the last decade, a new discovered
material called perovskite has widened its usage area as a photo-voltic cell.

Energy has always been a curious topic for me to explore. The fact that human
beings can only use a less amount of energy in terms of work makes the subject very
open to improve and develop. Last year, I wrote a paper as a research homework about
solar energy w. Since then, I noticed my speciel interest about energy and spesificially
solar energy. That’s why I decided to choose something related with solar energy in this
project. Whan I started to examine recent studies about solar energy, perovskite solar
cells took my attention. That’s why I choose to write my termpaper on perovskite solar
cells.

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 Theory:

Solar energy has risen its popularity in the last decades enourmously . In the solar
energy technologies, the fact that the energy efficiencies have risen up while the costs
have decreased in the last decade, lead it become one of the most populer energy supply
sectors worldwidely. It seems very possible that perovskite technologies has the potentiel
of increaseing the energy efficiency of the solar energy in the upcoming years. British
government establised that solar and wind power has maintained 47% of the energy need
of the country at the first quarter of 2020. Also, 42% of the electricity used in Germany
has been supplied from solar energy panels and wind turbines in 2020. In order to reach
decarbonization and zero emmision goals, it is very essential to know that the solar
energy plays a key role in electrical vehicles and in the production of the batteries of
electrical vehicles.

The efficiency produced by one single solar cell is very low. PV solar panels
consists of many solar cells. That’s why the constructive and photovoltic behaviours of
solar cells who are the samllest element of solar panels are really important in terms of
the efficiency maintained from solar panels. There are 2 main material types used in the
structrure of PV cells:

1) Organic Materials
2) Inorganic Materials

Organic materials has several advantages compared to inorganic ones. Some of these
advantages are: they are easily producible, they have low costs and their ductile structure allows
them to have a wide usage area. However, as an disadvantage they reflect most of the sunlight
back to the air which make them comparitevly less efficient. On the other hand, even tough
inorganic materials have more production costs, they are prefferred more because of their higher
efficiency. There exists a competation in terms of efficiency between inorganic materials.

Altough crystal Silicon solar cells are the most used material in the sector, they are not
satisfactory in terms of efficiency. Mono-crystalline silicon is the second most used material in
the production of PV batteries. Actually, silicon is a low efficient material. The reason for that is
silicon is an indirect semiconductor which makes it a weaker light absorber comparing to a direct
semiconductor. The reason of its wide utilization is that it is a high quality material developed in
semiconductor market before the photovoltaic technology has showed up. In the following years,
because of the high costs of single crytsral silicons, polycrystalline silicon materials started to be
developed and used and they captured the market. As well as its low costs, polycrystalline
silicons have an easier production precoess. On the other hand, the researches shows that
polycrytslalline silicon has an 2-3% lower efficiency rated relative to mono-crystalline sillicon.
Figure 1 shows the image of both poly-crystalline and mono-crystalline solar cells.

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 (figure 1: silicon solar cells)

Silicon is not the only option to produce solar cells. Perovsikte, which is an oxide mineral
has been used in the production process for more than 10 years and it enlarged its area of use
since then. Perovskite is firstly discovered by Russian mineralogist Perovski in 1939 in Ural
Mountains, Russia. It has a crystal cubic structure and calcium titanate is the most prevalent
perovskite type. In a regular silicon solar cell, in order to make electrons jump to the up layer,
photons need the help of some particles called phonons. In order to increase the possibility of
this interaction, a relatively thick mid plate of silicon panel should be produced. This situation
increases the production costs while it causes the cell to occupy more space. In silicon solar
panels, it is usual to have low efficiencies due to material defects. In order to eliminate these
defects, production takes place at very high temperatures which again increases the costs.
Differently from silicon solar cells, perovsikte solar cells don’t have to be thick. That’s why,
with a tecnnique called solution process very thin layers of perovsikte solar cells can be
produced. Also, compared to silicon, perovskite material has greater tolerance to defects and
blemishes. This extinguishes the necessisity of overcosting heat treatments. Averagely, 20 times
less amount of material is required for perovsikte comparing to silicon to produce solar cells.
The materials used for perovskite solar cells are very abundant in nature and if necessary ductile
form of cells can be produced. The image of the sturucture of typical perovskite made solar cell
is shown in figure 2.

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 (figure 2: perovskite solar cell)

Studies about perovskite cells keep going in labs in order to solve their problems and
diminish their disadvantages. One of the disavdantages is that perovskites are not durable.
Comparing to silicons which has a durability life of nearly 25 years, perovsikte materials can
only be used for several months. However, studies to increase the durability of perovskites are in
progress. Another disadvantage of perovskite is the lead it has inside of it which is toxic for the
environment. However, the lead material in the perovskite is very less compared to the lead used
in automobile batteries. On the other hand, on the top layers of perovskite cells usually gold
material is preferred which leads to an increase in the costs.

In solar cells, it is possible to increase the efficiency by locating photon absorbing

materials which has different behaviours one after the other. The first idea is to locate perovskite
material above silicon. This structure is called tandem cells. Already now tandem cells has
reached 29% efficiency which is higher than both the efficiency of only perovskite containing
cells (23%) and the efficiency of monocrystalline cells (27%). Scientists and enginneers say that
theoritically it is possible to have tandem cells having an efficiency up to 40%. As a result,
ductile mechanical behaviour, adaptability, thin design, low costs and high efficiencies are the
factors which will give perovskite materials a greater part in solar energy.

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 (figure 3: efficiency of silicon and perovskite)

Even tough the efficency of silicon solar cells is relatively higher than perovskite
made of solar cells, when we examine the slopes of the lines in figure 3, It’s seen that
perovskite’s efficiency line has a steeper slope. According to the graph, while silicon
increased its efficiency from 16 % to 25 % in 35 years, perovskite increased its efficiency
from 3 % to 23 % in less than a decade. This means that much progress and development
has been observeed in perovskite made of solar cells in less time. This situation gives
perovskite a higher potential for the future. No one can deny that with this increasing
efficiency rate, perovskite will become more populer in the production of solar cells in
the near future.

Discussion:

It’s a fact that world’s need of energy has increased in the last centuries and it will
increase for the next centuries. It’s also well known that sustainable and renewable
energy has become much more important in today’s world and will keep its importance
probably for the upcoming years. Also, It’s known that sun, which is an endless and
infinite energy source has great potential for people to maintain green, sustainbale and
renewable energy. As Figure 4 show 10% of world’s total electricity need is maintained
from wind and sun in 2020 which was 5 % in 2015. This shows how much solar energy
will become important in the future.

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 (figure 4: Rüzgar ve güneş, son beş yılda küresel enerji karmasındaki payını ikiye
katladı.)

Perovskites which are the new generation materials used in solar panels has a
massive potential. In last than 15 years, perovskites has risen their efficiency rate from 3
to 29 % which shows how even more important they will be in the future. While 18.141
articles were published about perovskites between 2010 and 2015, this number has
increased to 42.785 between 2015 and 2020. This shows how the scinence world is
interested in this new type of material.

As a young engineer candidate and a world citizen, I feel responsible about trying
to help and solve some problems of my country and of the world. I will feel proud if I can
be a part of people who fight to make the world, greener, less toxic by advancing
renewable and sustainable energy technologies. Turkey who only uses sun energy 3% to
generate electricity actually has a great advantage. Even UK who sees sun much less than
Turkey uses solar energy more beneficially. That’s why helping to use more of this great
infinite energy source will make me proud and make my society to have a more secure
energy in the future.

Perovskites which gives a great hope for solar energy engineers should be
advanced in the future. The problems about its stabililty, toxidity and durability are very
important. Considering new ways to solve these problems is what today’s engineers are
trying to deal with. With higher efficiency rates and lower costs, this material, perovskite,
will become much more imprtant in the upcoming years when its huge abundance is
taken into account.

Termpaper project is a great project in terms of what it adds to a person as a

researcher. It’s original and it has so many benefits. First of all, it allows a student to
explore himself and improve himself in terms of how to do research and find new and
valid information. It helps a person to find out his/her interest areas and maybe most
importantly it gives person the chance of progressing as a leraner. This very sufficient
project showed me how important the subjects I learned in this course and how they are
related with the real world.

Conclusion:

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 The article focuses on recent decelopments in the solar energy and the materials used in
solar cells. Firstly, the importance of energy is defined and required informations and
definitions about renewable and sustainable energies are given. After that, specifically
solar energy is researched. Recent studies about solar panel technology are examined and
the popular materials used in the production of solar cells are introduced. Afterwards,
silicon which is the most widely used material in solar cell production is presented.
Perovskite which is a new generation mineal oxide material that is used in the solar cell
production nowadays is detailly told. While advantages and disadvantages of perovskite
is given, a particular information about the comparison of silicon and perovskite is
included in the paper. All the research and information given in the paper is supported
with relevant figures. At the last part of the article the importance of renewable and
sustainable energy is reminded while predictions about the solar energy of the future has
been made. In this sense, the role of perovskite in the near future has been predicted at
the last part of the paper as well.

References:

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