| dc.description.abstract | Currently the world is facing the problem of energy deficit, global warming, and deterioration of environment and energy sources. There is a need for an alternative energy resource for power generation other than use of fossil fuels, water and wind. Many countries are coming forward to invest in the research and development for the utilization of renewable energy sources. Among the renewable energy systems, solar PV system and wind energy conversion systems are of higher focus. These have an annual growth rate of about 20%. However solar energy is preferred since it has low operating, more abundant compared to wind energy, low maintenance costs, a clean source of energy and is easy to install and environment friendly. Renewable energy sources are becoming more and more popular, regarding the pollution and non-sustainability of common energy sources. With increasing human population, a question arises, what is going to be the next reliable energy source after the disappearance of fossil fuels? One of most abundant resources is solar energy, which manifests itself directly, as solar irradiance, or indirectly as wind energy and biomass energy. When it comes to the efficiency of energy transformation, a couple of things need to be distinguished. There are two distinct types of energy that can be produced: electrical energy and thermal energy. Electrical energy, mostly because of its ability to be easily transferred to work, is more valuable than thermal energy. The most efficient way to obtain electrical energy is from direct solar irradiance via photovoltaic cells (PV cell).
One of the major technologies used for harnessing the solar energy is photovoltaic solar technology. A solar cell is a semiconductor device that directly converts the energy from sunlight into electrical energy through the process of photovoltaic. The photovoltaic effect is the creation of voltage or current in a material due to exposure of material to sunlight. The solar cells are capable of producing electric current without being connected to any external voltage source. The most common semiconductor material used in the development of solar cells is silicon. Materials other than silicon used for the construction of solar cells are copper indium di-selenide, cadmium telluride and gallium arsenide. The solar cells made up of silicon can be categorized according to the type of crystals as amorphous silicon, polycrystalline silicon and mono crystalline silicon. In photovoltaic solar technology a panel consisting of many solar cells is used. Different types of cells have been manufactured and these have a different efficiency rate though the power conversion efficiency is low. | en_US |
