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In thick solar cells there is very little electric field in the active region outside the space charge zone, so the dominant mode of charge carrier separation is diffusion. In these cells the diffusion length of minority carriers (the length that photo-generated carriers can travel before they recombine) must be large compared to the cell ...
A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect. [1] It is a form of photoelectric cell, a device whose electrical characteristics (such as current , voltage , or resistance ) vary when it is exposed to light.
An organic solar cell (OSC [1]) or plastic solar cell is a type of photovoltaic that uses organic electronics, a branch of electronics that deals with conductive organic polymers or small organic molecules, [2] for light absorption and charge transport to produce electricity from sunlight by the photovoltaic effect.
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 operate by absorbing light, exciting the absorber. This creates electron–hole pairs that must be separated into electrons (negative charge carriers) and holes (positive charge carriers) by asymmetry in the solar cell, provided through chemical gradients [4] or electric fields in semiconducting junctions. [5]
Indiana's Northern Indiana Public Service Company, NIPSCO, offers a feed-in tariff of $0.30/kWh for systems from 5 to 10 kW, and $0.26/kWh for systems from 10 kW to 2 MW. [14] AES Indiana has a Renewable Energy Production program that pays $0.24/kWh for solar from 20 kW to 100 kW and $0.20/kWh for solar arrays of from 100 kW to 10 MW. Payments ...
Solar cell efficiencies. In August 2014 First Solar announced a device with 21.1% conversion efficiency. [42] In February 2016, First Solar announced that they had reached a record 22.1% conversion efficiency in their CdTe cells. In 2014, the record module efficiency was also raised by First Solar from 16.1% up to 17.0%. [43]
Controlling the interface of inorganic-organic hybrid solar cells can increase the efficiency of the cells. This increased efficiency can be achieved by increasing the interfacial surface area between the organic and the inorganic materials to facilitate charge separation and by controlling the nanoscale lengths and periodicity of each structure so that charges separate and move toward the ...