Common Photovoltaic Cells and Cost Optimization

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Common Photovoltaic Cells and Cost Optimization
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Overview

• Overview of solar power
• Economic Problems
• Crystalline PV Cells
• Thin Film PV Cells

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Solar Energy

• Certain materials absorb certain wavelengths
• The shorter the wavelength the greater the energy
• Ultraviolet light has more energy than infrared
  light
• Crystalline silicon
• Utilizes all the visible spectrum plus some
  infrared radiation
• Heat vs. electrical energy
• Light frequencies that is too high or too low for
  the semiconductor to absorb turn into heat energy
  instead of electrical energy

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Solar Energy

• "I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy.
  What a source of power! I hope we don't have to
  wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle
  that."Thomas Edison, 1931.
• The sun provides every day 10,000 times the
  energy needed on the planet
• Abundant, Clean and Secure

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Solar Energy
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Solar Cell Production Volume
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Economic Problems

• Material Cost
• Process Cost
• Module Efficiency

• Module Size
• Module Weight
• Labor Cost

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Economic Problems
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Crystalline Solar Cells

• Materials Crystalline Silicon
• Grown into large single-crystal ingots
• Sawed into thin wafers
• 2 wafers are bonded together (p-n junction)
• Wafers grouped into panels or arrays

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Crystalline Solar Cells
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Crystalline Silicon Process
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Crystalline Silicon Process
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Crystalline PV Cell Cost Optimization
Material Efficiency
Fabrication Line Scale
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Crystalline PV Cell Cost Optimization
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Thin Film Solar Cells
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Thin Film Cost Optimization
Large area processing low cost per area
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Thin Film Cost Optimization
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Conclusion

• Solar energy is one of the most important for
  future energy resource
• Crystalline and thin film PV cells are the most
  common solar cells these days
• Cost optimization of PV cells is extremely
  important

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Thank You!