Introduction to Solar cells

A solar (photovoltaic) cell is a device that converts light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is the ability of matter to emit electrons when a light is shone on it.

Photovoltaic is the field of technology and research related to the application of solar cells in producing electricity for practical use. The energy generated this way is called solar energy.

The photovoltaic effect was first recognized in 1839. However, it was not until 1883 that the first solar cell was built. There are basically 2 types of solar cells we see today, namely the crystalline solar cell and thin-film solar cell.

Crystalline silicon solar cell is widely popular due to two reasons.

First, it was the material used in the earliest successful PV(photovoltaic) devices and...

Second, although other PV materials and designs exploit the photoelectric effect in slightly different ways, if we know how the effect works in crystalline silicon, then we'll have a basic understanding of how it works in all PV devices.

A Thin-Film Solar Cell (TFSC) is a solar cell that is made by depositing one or more thin layers (thin film) of photovoltaic material on a substrate. The thickness range of such a layer is wide and varies from a few nanometers to tens of micrometers.

There has been wide debate of whether crystalline silicon solar cells or thin-film solar cells are more efficient in their work and scientist has yet to come to a conclusion. There is an interesting experiment which is going to be done to conclusively resolve this long arguement. Click here to read more about it!