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Introduction

The interest in renewable energy has been revived over last few years, especially after global
awareness regarding the ill effects of fossil fuel burning. Beside this, natural resources or
energy sources such as; fossil fuels, oil, natural gas etc. are limited and economically
depleting rapidly. It demands immediate attention alternative sources of energy.

The earth surface receives about 1.2 × Watts of solar power per hour which is more than
enough the entire energy demand of the human population over the whole year. Proper
utilization of this energy can fulfill the access demand of electricity and decreases the
dependency on natural resources and that will be more environment friendly than now.

Solar Radiation
Solar energy is the energy comes from the sun. Every day the sun radiates, or sends an
enormous amount of energy. It comes from within the sun itself. Like other stars the sun is
made up mostly of hydrogen and helium which generates energy in its core in a process
called nuclear fusion. The sun’s extremely high pressure and heat causes four hydrogen
atoms to get combined and generates a helium atom. But weight of a helium atom is less than
the weight of four helium atom. There is some lost factor during this whole process. The lose
matter is emitted in to the spaces as radiant energy. This comes as a form of light and energy
in a speed of 3 × m/s and it the sources of all energy in the earth. The power per unit area
received from the sun from this electromagnetic radiation is called solar irradiance. The S.I.
unit of irradiance is wh/ . The solar irradiance of Bangladesh is 4.5 wh/ in average.

The whole energy radiated from the sun does not reach to the surfaces directly. It gets
reflected or scatted by molecules, clouds and particulate matter referred to as aerosols. The
radiations that reach directly without any reflection is called beam radiation. The radiations
that reach after getting scatted is called diffuse radiation. Another portion which reaches a
receiver after reflection from the ground is albedo.

The amount of radiation reaches the ground is variable which is related to the apparent
motion of the sun, climatic conditions (cloud cover) as well as the general composition of the
atmosphere. A concept which characterizes the effect of clear atmosphere on sunlight is air
mass. It is approximately equal to ⁄ , where In fig.:1 the
concept of air mass and in Fig. 2 the effect of air mass have been shown.

Fig.1: Air Mass. Fig.2: Effect of AM


Solar Cell
A solar cell is an electric device that converts the energy of light directly into electric energy.
It is made from semiconductors which is similar to other semiconductor devices such as
diode. The cells works in several steps:

 Photons carry energy and hit solar cells. . Then they are absorbed the semiconductor
material. Energy carried by photons, where c is the speed of photon, λ is
the wave length of photon and h is Plank’s constant.
 Electrons are excited from their current molecular/atomic orbital. Once excited an
electron can either dissipate the energy as heat and return to its orbital or travel from
valance to conduction band. Since a hole is left behind the valance band, the
absorption process generates electron-hole pair. The light-introduced electron traffic
across the band gap generates current, called generation current. Neglecting losses
each photon contributes one electron charge to generation current. The electric current
is then equal to Hence an
electric power in power is produced by separating the light-generated electrons and
holes to the terminals of the device. The generated voltage, V= , where

 An array of solar cells converts solar energy into a usable amount of direct
current (DC) electricity.
 An inverter can convert the power to alternating current (AC).
In fig.3 the generation of electron-hole pair by light and in fig.4 , Structure of a typical solar
cell have been shown.

fig.3: the generation of electron-hole pair by fig.4 : Structure of a typical solar cell
light
The short circuit current and the open circuit voltage are the maximum current and voltage of
a solar cell. However, at both of these operating points the power is zero. “Fill Factor” is the
parameter which, in conjunction with short circuit current Ish and open circuit current Voc .
The maximum power, Pmax generated by the device is reached at a point on the characteristic
where I-V is maximum. This is shown graphically in the fig. 5 where the position of the
maximum power point largest area of the rectangle (A). Usually, Pmax=Vm Im =FF Voc Ish .
Fig. 5: I-V characteristic of a solar cell with MPP.

Temperature and irradiance has an important effect on the power output from solar cell.
Voltage and current change due to the variable temperature and irradiance.

In the fig. 6 dependency irradiance of I-V


characteristic of solar cell has been shown.
As we can see, current is proportional to
the flux of protons. The short-circuit
current is directly proportional to the
irradiance but the variation in voltage is
much smaller.

Fig.6: Irradiance dependency of I-V characteristic.

Temperature has also dependency on current


and voltage. As we can see in the fig.7 voltage
decreases with increasing temperature.
Typically, in a silicon cell 2.3mV of voltage
decreases with increasing of 1OC of
temperature. But, variation in current is that
much significant.
Fig.7: Temperature dependency of I-V
characteristic.

Losses in Solar Cell:


Fundamental Losses: A considerable amount of photon energy is converted into heat which
remains unutilized properly. Beside this another big part of the solar energy is not utilized
because of inability of solar cell to absorb below bandgap light. A complex tandem cell is
introduced to overcome these losses.

Recombination: Recombination is the most common defects of crystal structure where


energy levels may be introduced inside energy gap that acts as stepping stone to fall back into
the valance band and recombine with hole. The external surface of semiconductor is
protected by a layer of passivating oxide to reduce to surface recombination. It affects both
current and voltage of a cell.
Top Contract Design:
Solar Cell is the core of a Photovoltaic (PV) panel. Thousands of cells are mound together
and act as a source of power. The transmission of electrical current produced by the solar cell
involves ohmic losses. These are grouped together and connected to each other to make a
module. These are module are connected in series to make an array.

Basic Types of PV Panels:


There are three basic types of construction of PV panels:
1. Moncrystalline : Cells are from a single crystal of silicon – they are effectively a slice
of crystal those have a smooth texture. It is the most efficient and expensive one.
2. Polycryctalline : Cells are effectively a slice cut from a block of silicon, consisting
large number of crystal. It is less efficient and expensive than monocrystalline.
3. Amorphus : Cells are manufactured by placing a thin film of amorphous silicon onto
a wide choice of surface. If it is manufactured in flexible surface, the whole plane can
be flexible. It’s efficiency and expense is lower than others.

Some Advanced Technologies:


Thin Film Solar Panel Technology: These solar panels are manufactured by depositing one
or more thin layer of PV material on to the substrate such as glass, flexible plastic or metal.
Initially, amorphous silicon or cadmium Telluride was used but now CIGS are widely used as
PV material. It is cheaper and lighter than typical panels. It reduces greenhouse effects.

Photosensitive Dyes: A layer of sensitized dye is in contract with semiconductor material


(usually, titanium dioxide). It is relatively cheap and produce power at low light level.

Perovskites: It includes a perovskite structured compound (such as calcium titanium trioxide)


as light-harvesting active layer. It has a high efficiency and very low production cost.

Concentrating Photovoltaic Cell (CVP): It uses lenses and curved mirror to focus sunlight
onto small but high efficient multi-junction solar cell. Sometimes, Solar Tracking technology
is used with this system. There is a possibility to achieve 50% of efficiency by using this.

Advantage and disadvantage of Solar cells:


The main advantage of this solar cell is environment friendly behavior. Unlike other
machines, it does not need any natural fuel and works silently. Moreover, it does not have
any production and maintenance cost and easily moveable. However, it also has some
disadvantage. If the sun goes down or is heavily shaded PV panel stops producing, then we
have to get electricity from other sources. Besides this, the cost of a solar panel is higher than
most other sources of same power rating.

Conclusion:
Solar is the cleanest and greenest source of renewable energy. Proper Utilization of this
energy can reduce the dependency on fossils, fuel or mineral gases.
MILITARY INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (MIST)

Mirpur Cantonment, Dhaka-1216

Course Title: Energy Conversion and Renewable Energy

Assignment: 01
Solar Energy

Submitted To:
Dr. Shahidul Islam Khan

Professor

Scien

Submitted By: Md. Sajjad Hossain.


Rol:132324546

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