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For most crystalline silicon solar cells the change in V OC with temperature is about −0.50%/°C, though the rate for the highest-efficiency crystalline silicon cells is around −0.35%/°C. By way of comparison, the rate for amorphous silicon solar cells is −0.20 to −0.30%/°C, depending on how the cell is made.
A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell ... for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. ... only behind China, with its production capacity ...
The first demonstration of the photovoltaic effect, by Edmond Becquerel in 1839, used an electrochemical cell. He explained his discovery in Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences, "the production of an electric current when two plates of platinum or gold immersed in an acid, neutral, or alkaline solution are exposed in an uneven way to solar radiation."
Solar cells produce direct current electricity from sunlight which can be used to power equipment or to recharge batteries. The first practical application of photovoltaics was to power orbiting satellites and other spacecraft, but today the majority of photovoltaic modules are used for grid-connected systems for power generation.
The Shockley–Queisser limit, zoomed in near the region of peak efficiency. In a traditional solid-state semiconductor such as silicon, a solar cell is made from two doped crystals, one an n-type semiconductor, which has extra free electrons, and the other a p-type semiconductor, which is lacking free electrons, referred to as "holes."
In a basic Schottky-junction (Schottky-barrier) solar cell, an interface between a metal and a semiconductor provides the band bending necessary for charge separation. [1] Traditional solar cells are composed of p-type and n-type semiconductor layers sandwiched together, forming the source of built-in voltage (a p-n junction ). [ 2 ]
These photoelectrochemical cells work from an organic dye compound inside the cell and cost half as much as silicon solar cells. 1988–1991 AMOCO/Enron used Solarex patents to sue ARCO Solar out of the business of a-Si (see Solarex Corp.(Enron/Amoco) v.Arco Solar, Inc.Ddel, 805 Fsupp 252 Fed Digest.)
In solar cells which increase in efficiency due to light soaking a typical deformation (often referred to as an S or kink shape) is seen in the I-V curve before illumination. After illumination during some period, the short-circuit current density and open-circuit voltage go up resulting in a higher fill factor.