RENEWABLE ENERGY

RESOURCES
CHE-471

LECTURE # 13
 TODAY’S TOPIC

CONSTRUCTION OF SOLAR CELLS

 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Learning Objectives:
• To indicate the limitations of single junction solar cells
• To describe how solar cells are constructed
• To describe the functioning of tandem solar cells
 EFFICIENCIES OF SOLAR CELLS

• Silicon with 1.1 eV band gap, the best efficiency achieved is 32~33%.
But practically 24% efficiency is what is actually achieved.
• So 76~77% of solar energy what is incident on the solar unit is lost.
And we need to see why this is getting lost?
• The solar panel is sitting at a temp. of 60~70 C because in sunlight it
gets heated up. So the solar panel loses heat by radiation.
• Studies show that 7% of the incident energy is lost by radiation.
• So that is the first loss and leaves behind 93% of solar energy in the
solar cell.
 ENERGY LOSSES OF SOLAR CELLS
• We learned when solar radiation falls in the semiconductor material and electron-
hole pair is created. Electrons then serve as charge carriers for electric current.
But a significant amount of electrons fall back into the holes or recombine the
hole. So this causes the loss of 10% of the incident energy.
• So after we account for this loss, the maximum left behind is 83%
• Now a key point to note is that any incident radiation having energy less than the
band gap of Silicon semi-conductor will not be able to create electron-hole pair
and it just passes through the material and the material behaves like a
transparent material for such radiation.
• For instance, for silicon whose band gap(Eg) is 1.1 eV any incident radiation
energy (hv) less than 1.1 eV is going to pass through the Si semi-conductor
unaffected, without creating any electron-hole pair and in turn no electricity.
• So it turns out 19% of radiation passes through unabsorbed and goes waste.
• Now let’s consider the other range of energy, that is when incident energy hv is
very high than the band gap i.e. hv > > Eg
• When incident energy is not too high than band gap and is closer to band gap, the
creation of electron-hole pair can be depicted as fig. a.
• When the incident energy is too high as compared to band gap, the released
electron is pushed up too higher energy level and is unstable and then falls back
to the lower level and becomes stable, as shown in figures b and c, but the
energy it consumes in going up to level 3 and falling back to point to 2 is wasted
in the form of heat. So this way all the incident energy having too high energy is
wasted in the form of heat and only the incident energy closer to band gap is
utilized as convertible to electric energy.

a. b. c.
Description % Loss
Energy Lost by Radiation 7%
Energy Lost by recombination of electrons and holes 10 %
Energy ( hv < Eg ) passes through unabsorbed 19%
Energy (hv > Eg ) lost as heat 33%
Total Energy Lost 69%
Energy Captured by the solar cell 100-69 = 31%

These are kind of rough figures.

More precise studies reveal that the captured energy in terms of
efficiency of the solar cells are 33%.
 Solar Cell Construction
n material and p materials are joined together, Incident solar radiation
and we have solar radiations incident on the n material
top surface. junction
p material
Solar energy penetrates and reaches at junction
where charges build up and electrons accumulate
at n and holes accumulate at p.

Now to tap the electric current we need to provide

an electrical contact to complete the circuit. This will
serve as a positive terminal. This should be a flat
metallic surface for example Al.
• There is a limitation to this design.
We can’t put flat metallic surface on top, as it would block the incident radiation.
The top surface should be open to maximum radiations incident on it.
• So with this in mind, we add a specially designed
electrode called as finger electrode, to capture
electricity and make it flow through the circuit.
• Now with this figure electrode, we manage to
provide an electrode, by masking a little area
of the semiconductor and providing a large area
for the incident radiation.
• Now electrons are tapped to top electrode and holes
are tapped to the bottom electrode and if we connect
a wire we get electric current flowing through the circuit.
 Materials, Efficiencies and Costs

Material % Efficiency Efficiency Cost

Trend Trend
Single 25 %
Crystalline
Polycrystalline 15 %
Amorphous 5%
 Construction of Amorphous Silicon Solar Cell
Amorphous Silicon solar cell is little different in built.
Since amorphous semiconductor is like
a film, instead of hard flat plate, it has
the advantage that it can be installed
on a surface of any shape, which is not
necessarily a flat surface.
So when a flat surface amorphous semi
conductor is to be constructed; a flat
substrate needs to be installed.
So a glass is installed as a substrate on top of the cell.
Since it’s a glass it allows all the incident radiation to pass through it.
• Below the glass, a material known as Transparent Conducting Oxide is put.
Typically Indium Tin Oxide is used.
This has a reasonable electronic conductivity
and behaves as a transparent surface. It
allows the electrons to collect on it and
at the same time let’s the radiation pass
through it.
• Below this comes the pn-junction, already
discussed before.
• At the bottom a reflective back contact is installed.
This is meant to reflect back any incident radiation that misses to hit the electrons and
passes through. When reflected back it can release more electrons and thus it increases
efficiency of this amorphous solar cell.
• In order to capture maximum incident radiation, an anti-reflective coating is also used
on top of the glass surface. It’s shown as diagonal lines on top of glass.
 Tendem Cells for Improved Efficiency
Is there a way to improve this 33.4% efficiency?
The answer is ‘Tendem Cells’.
Tendem Cells are solar cells in series.
For example, two cells in series are shown in figure
Solar radiation are incident on the cell on the top.
Photons with higher energy are captured at the
top solar cell.
As discussed earlier, the radiation with energy (hv)
lower than band gap of top cell will pass through
the top cell unabsorbed.
It will incident on the cell below with lower band
gap and will be captured here.
 TENDEM CELLS
• So this way when solar cells are placed in series, the
lower energy photons will keep on passing to the
layers underneath. Thus with the same surface area
more and more photons can be captured and hence
efficiency is improved.
• We need to make sure that enough transparency
is there that sufficient radiation reaches through
the layers all the way down to the last layer.
• If concentrated solar radiation is used, studies
reveal that theoretically 80% of efficiency is possible
by use of Tendem Cells.
 This concludes the Solar Cell Construction
as well as the Solar Energy Part of the semester.

THANK YOU