Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Fall 2012
Photovoltaic modules
• Photovoltaic (PV) modules are made by connecting several PV cells. PV
arrays are made by connecting several PV modules.
• Although the sun will eventually die as a white dwarf star in about 4.5 Billion
years, solar power can be considered a renewable source of energy because
we can expect that for the next couple of billion years the sun will still radiate
power without making the Earth inhabitable.
• Step 3.2: 1 D 1 D 1T p or 2 He n
2 2 3 3 0
• Step 4.2: 1T 1T 2 He 2n
3 3 4 0
• All photons are created equal. So why photons leaving the sun have different
energy (as indicated by their different frequency in the dual wave model)?
• The emitted photons have high energy. This energy is mostly lost in collisions
with atoms as the photons leave the sun.
•This reaction can only occur due to the high pressure generated by the mass
contraction at the Sun’ s center.
• The Sun is mostly composed of hydrogen (73 %) and Helium (25 %). These
proportions are changing. Eventually the sun will start the fusion process of
heavier elements.
4 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012
Photons’ Journey into Electricity
• Ideal radiation of energy is described by the black body radiation.
• Black bodies radiate energy at different wavelengths as indicated by
3.74 108
E
14400
e
5 T
1
• The Sun closely behaves like a black body at a temperature T=5800 K (the
Sun’s surface temperature)
• Total blackbody radiation rate
(area under the curve):
E A T 4
E=AσT4
For the Sun it equals 1.37 kW/m2
Diffuse radiation
Direct-beam radiation
Reflected radiation
Up (−z axis)
sun
zenith
Line perpendicular to
horizontal plane
Horizontal plane
East West
(y axis) sun
azimuth
Celestial poles:
• Created by Earth’s rotation.
• They are two imaginary stationary
points in the sky.
• Important for PV system applications.
Geological Survey of Canada
20
30 3 PM
40
Sep
50
60
70 Dec
80
90
Tropic of Cancer
Latitude 23.45o 23.45o March 21
September 21
23.45o
Equator
December 21
Tropic of Capricorn
Latitude -23.45o
Earth’s surface
(for air mass ratio
calculation)
• Whenever a photon with enough energy hits an atom, an electron may jump
the energy gap into the conduction band. Once in the conduction band the
electron is free to move in an electric circuit.
• If the circuit is open or if the load requires less current (charge per time) than
the one being produced, the free electrons will eventually decay again.
• Since it is assumed a continuous slow varying incident solar energy, electrons
are freed at a constant rate. Hence, a constant voltage is produced.
15 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012
Photons’ Journey into Electricity
• Atom’s energy model:
Conduction band Conduction band
(partially filled) (Empty at T = 0K)
Electron Energy
Electron Energy
Eg Forbidden band Eg Forbidden band
Filled band
Gap Gap
Filled band Filled band
Metals semiconductors
• Photons energy is quantized. The energy of a photon with a wavelength of λ
(or a frequency of υ) is
hc
E h
Lost in heat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:EffectiveTemperature_300dpi_e.png
From the course’s recommended book
Excess Insufficient
energy energy
• So for an air mass ratio of 1.5 the efficiencies are (see next slide)
• Crystalline configuration:
• Single crystal
• Multicrystalline: cell formed by 1mm to 10cm single crystal areas.
• Polycrystalline: cell formed by 1μm to 1mm single crystal areas.
• Microcrystalline: cell formed by areas of less than 1μm across.
• Amorphous: No single crystal areas.
• Thin film
• Can be used embedded in semitransparent windows.
• Techniques:
• Amorphous Silicon: can achieve higher efficiencies (in the order of 42%
thanks to the multijunction (different multiple layers) in which each layer absorb
photons with different energy.
• Gallium Arsenide (GaAs): relatively high theoretical efficiency (29 %) which is
not significantly affected by temperature. Less sensitive to radiation. Gallium
makes this solution relatively expensive.
• Gallium Indium Phosphide (GaInP): similar to GaAs.
• Cadmium Telluride (CdTe): Issue: Cd is a health hazard (it is very toxic).
• Copper Indium Diselenide (CIS or CuInSe2): relatively good efficiency)
• Silicon Nitrade (N4Si3)