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Photovoltaic Panels
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History of Photovoltaic Cells
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It may surprise you to know, that the ability of certain treated substances to generate
electricity when light falls on them was discovered as far back as 1839. That is
40 years before Thomas Edison was credited with inventing the first workable electric
light bulb.
However something that could be described as a solar cell was not created until
the late 1800's, using selenium. It wasn't until the 1950's that it was discovered
that silicon performs much better and the way was paved to create viable solar cells
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How does a Solar Cell Work?
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In a crystal of pure silicon, the atoms form a lattice. These atoms, like any others,
have nucleus which includes positive charged protons, while around the nucleus,
are negatively charged electrons in layers or shells. The outer shell of electrons
is not "full", so neighboring atoms share electrons and hold each other together
in the crystal. These electrons are held quite firmly in place and do not readily
move around.
If light energy is absorbed by the cell, the energy will push electrons across the
junction and, if an electrical circuit is made between the two silicon types, the
electrons will flow through it, back to where they came from, and continue to do
so.
Luckily for us, the flow of electrons (in other words, the electric current) can
be made do work on the way round, i.e., charging batteries.
This type of cell may be 15-20% efficient, partly due to the silicon wafers not
absorbing all the light energy. A more sophisticated type of cell, known as a Multi-Junction
Cell, may have further wafer pairs above or below, using different doping chemicals,
each able to absorb different wavelengths of light
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The pure silicon crystal can be "doped" with a different element, ie small amounts
of an "impurity" are added. If the doping is done with an element that has more
electrons in it's outer shell than silicon, there will be negatively charged electrons
that are free to move around, and this is called "n-type" silicon. This material
will conduct electricity much better than pure silicon as these spare electrons
are more free to move, and we have created a semiconductor. The crystal does not
have an overall negative charge however as the negative electrons are still balanced
by positive protons in the nucleus.
If instead, the silicon is doped with an element having fewer electrons in it's
outer shell, there will be an overall shortage of electrons, and the material will
be a p-type silicon. The minute areas where electrons are effectively missing are
called holes, and these holes can also freely move around.
In a solar cell, there will be both n-type and p-type silicon in contact with each
other. Electrons will move across from the n-type to the p-type at their junction
as they will be attracted to the nearby holes. Once this has happened at the junction,
this area acts a barrier, stopping further electrons moving across and an electric
field exists across the junction.
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