Silicon photovoltaics

Americans D. M. Chapin, C. S. Fuller, and G. L Pearson develop the silicon photovoltaic cell. 

Single-Crystal Silicon. Silicon is still the dominant material in photovoltaic. It has good efficiency, which is 25% in theory and 15% in actual practice. Silicon photovoltaic devices are made from wafers sliced from single crystal silicon ingots, produced in part by CVD (see Ch. 8, Sec. 5.1). However, silicon wafers are still costly, their size is limited, and they cannot be sliced to thicknesses less than 150 im. One crystalline silicon wafer yields only one solar cell, which has an output of only one watt. This means that such cells will always be expensive and can only be used where their high efficiency is essential and cost is not a major factor such as in a spacecraft applications. 

Delahoy, A. E., Recent Developments in Amorphous Silicon Photovoltaic Research and Manufacturing at Chronar Corporation, Solar Cells, (27) 39-57 (1989)... 

Figure 4.26 Generic structure of a single crystal silicon photovoltaic cell.

I. E. Vasilyeva, E. V. Shabanova, Y. V. Sokolnikova, O. A. Proydakova and V. I. Lozhkin, Selection of internal standard for determination of boron and phosphorus by ICP-MS in silicon photovoltaic materials,... 

Polycrystalline silicon Photovoltaic devices Variety of capillary growth methods... 

Another solar firm, SolFocus (www.solfocus.coml has developed solar arrays that use just one-thousandth as much semiconductor material as standard solar panels. The arrays are set with curved mirrors that focus sunlight onto solar cells measuring one-square centimeter, which concentrates the light 500 times. These cells efficiency is greater than 38%, compared to the 13% to 19% efficiency for silicon photovoltaic cells. SolFocus projects that costs per kilowatt-hour will fall from 24 to 28 cents in 2008 to 13 to 14 cents by 2010. 

Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Wafers... 

W. Beyer, J. Hiipkes, H. Stiebig, Transparent conducting oxide films for thin film silicon photovoltaics. to be published at ICMCTF, San Diego (2007)... 

Amorphous silicon photovoltaic modules are likely to capture a growing... 

Irradiance Biospherical Instruments, Inc./QSP-170 Teflon sphere collector-silicon photovoltaic detector 6% Measures only photosyn-thetically active light... 

Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin fur Materialien und Energie GmbH Institute Silicon Photovoltaics... 

Until 1998, the silicon photovoltaics industry was able to rely on off-specification EG material, including rejects from polysilicon manufacture (material from aborted processes, faulty seeds, ends of seed rods close to the carbon contacts, fines and chips, dendritic growths, small granules, sawn sections of seed rods) and from crystal growth (heads and tails of... 

The Centre for Advanced Silicon Photovoltaics and Photonics is supported by the Australian Research Council and the New South Wales Department of State and Regional Development. UNSW has a special interest in thin-film and wafer-based silicon fechnologies. 

Richard Corkish / ARC Centre of Excellence for Advanced Silicon Photovoltaics and Photonics, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia... 

M.A. Green (2001) Advanced Materials, vol. 13, p. 1019 - Crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells . 

Carmichael, D. C. et al. "Evaluation of Available Encapsulation Materials for Low-Cost Long-Life Silicon Photovoltaic... 

Economics. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has estimated that In order to be cost-effective, the Installed system price for residential photovoltaic systems In 1986 must be 1.60 to 2.20 per peak watt. In 1980 dollars. Of this, 0.80 per peak watt Is applied to the photovoltaic collector Itself. Typical costs for current photovoltaic systems are 20.00 per peak watt, of which 10.50 per peak watt Is allocated to the collector.( 1) Although strides are being made In the development of singlecrystal silicon photovoltaic devices, the potential for their low-cost manufacture remains an open question. The need to search for other materials which may result In cost-effective devices Is evident. The economic attraction of an organic polymer-based photovoltaic device Is Its use of small amounts of Inexpensive material and Its suitability for mass production. 

Silicon photovoltaic cells, although more efficient, are expensive to produce and would have to cover large land masses in order to produce sufficient quantities of solar-powered electricity. For example, to replace the 2000 MW power station at Didcot, Oxfordshire in the UK with photovoltaic solar cells would require a land area of about 16 km. ... 

Point-Contact Cell - A high efficiency silicon photovoltaic concentrator cell that employs light trapping techniques and point-diffused contacts on the rear surface for current collection. 

Staebler-Wronski effect - The tendency of the sunlight to electricity conversion efficiency of amorphous silicon photovoltaic devices to degrade (drop) upon initial exposure to light. 

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