Question

3. (a) Among thin-film and emerging photovoltaic technologies, explain two photovoltaic cells you understand well, in terms of working principle, structure, materials used, fabrication techniques, advantages, and disadvantages.

(b) Assume you are about to start a business in photovoltaic technologies. Based on what you have studied in this course; what type of photovoltaic cell business would you like to run? Explain the reasons.

Answer 1

A)

The two types of thin film photovoltaic cells I understand -

1)Cadmium telluride thin-film solar cells

It comprises of a junction of n-doped cadmium sulfide.

This is as the window layer.

it has p layer of telluride.It iskis known absorber.

A transparent conductive front contact covers the cadmium sulfide.

When the sunlight falls on the cell the electron gets exited and the boundary layers collapses to form a current.

2)Copper indium gallium selenide(CIGS)

It has a thin film of copper indium selenide and copper gallium selenide with a trace amount of sodium.

This films form a bandgap that form heterojunction as band gap of this two material are different .

thin-film cell is deposited onto a substrate that can be metal ,soda lime glass,etc that for a rear surface contact.

As sunlight enters the CIGS transperent front the depletion layer form between two layers of CIGS narrow and then the current is form .

Comparision of 1 vs 2

Efficiency-22.1 % vs 18.7%

Cost efficient- moderate vs lower moderate

Uses comparability- less vs wide

B)

Based on the study and the two thin film cells I have given.Thin film is really a modern technology in solar field and It has significantly reduced the cost and hectic work of manufacturing solar panel process.

Both the cells I provided is good but cadmium is poisonous and industry people don't want to risk both for personal as well as legal reason.

CIGS has low efficiency but the cost is less for installation and manufacturing.

For now we don't rely on solar panels but CIGS is cheap and it should be used and if we aware people of the long terms benefits vs the cost they are paying now and they will pay in near future.People will surely opt for CIGS cells.

Hence my suggestion would be CIGS cells.