WHY ARE
SOLAR PANELS SPECIAL?
by Augustas
Keblikas
My subject of the research is Solar panels.
They’ve been around since 1878 when Augustin Mouchot first introduced solar
power generator. I’m going to analyze what makes them so special and what’s the
science behind them.
KEY TERMS
Conductor-
material that has ability to conduct electricity (gold, copper);
Insulator-
material that ability to block flow of electricity (glass, clay);
Semiconductor-
material that has an electrical conductivity value witch falls between
conductor (gold, copper) and insulator (glass, clay);
Covalent
bonding- chemical bond between two atoms that
involves the sharing of electron pairs between atoms;
Photovoltaic-
material that has ability to convert light to electricity;
BIPV-
Building-integrated Photovoltaics;
CdTe- Cadmium Telluride;
TFSC-
Thin-Film Solar Cells;
SUMMARY
Solar panels are made out of semiconductor
material. Special types of specific semiconducting materials are able to
produce electricity at certain conditions. There are several types of solar
cell materials, but there are specific ones that are best known:
1.
Monocrystalline
Monocrystalline- type of silicon that
has it’s own arrangement of crystal structure, with each atom lying in a
pre-ordained position. This type of material goes through several cycles of
filtration and separation processes. This may sound efficient, but this type of
silicone is most expensive. “Fun fact” these solar panels mostly are round
shape or at least ‘square with round corners’ shape. This is result of crystal
growth process because it the only way to grow these crystals.
2.
Polycrystalline
Polycrystalline- type of silicon that
has several regions of silicon kept together through covalent bonding and later
on separated. This type of silicon was first used, to make solar panels. Although this is oldest type of silicon, but
it has few advantages ‘up his sleeve’. The process to make this silicon is simpler
and cost less, also this type of silicon has higher heat tolerance. However, efficiency of it is 10% less than
monocrystalline.
3.
String
Ribbon Solar Cells
String ribbon solar cells are also
made out of polycrystalline silicon. This name comes from it’s manufacturing
technology. Temperature-resistant wires are
pulled through molten silicon. These solar panels looks similar to traditional polycrystalline
solar panels. This type of solar panels cost even less than tradicional
polycrystalline, that is because it uses only half of the amount of this
silicon, but this particular type of solar panels have lowest space-efficiency
of any kind.
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