What are solar cell materials

What is a solar cell

solar cell, also known as "solar chip" or "photovoltaic cell", is an optoelectronic semiconductor sheet that uses sunlight to directly generate electricity. As long as it is illuminated by light that meets certain illumination conditions, it can instantly output voltage and generate current if there is a loop. In physics, it is called solar photovoltaic (photovoltaic, abbreviated as PV), or photovoltaic for short.

A solar cell is a device that directly converts light energy into electrical energy through the photoelectric effect or photochemical effect. Crystalline silicon solar cells that work with the photovoltaic effect are the mainstream, while thin-film cells that work with the photochemical effect are still in their infancy.

What are solar cell materials

Currently, the mainstream photovoltaic product on the market is crystalline silicon solar cells, which are also the most widely used products. The raw material is high-purity silicon. The production of 1 megawatt of crystalline silicon cells requires 17 tons of high-purity silicon.

Silicon is the second most abundant chemical element on the earth. As a semiconductor material, it has been studied the most and has the most mature technology. Moreover, crystalline silicon has stable performance and is non-toxic, so it has become the main material in the research, development, production and application of solar cells. However, high-purity polysilicon is in short supply in my country, and most of it needs to be imported.

High-purity silicon is extracted from quartz. Taking monocrystalline silicon as an example, the extraction goes through the following processes: quartz sand - metallurgical grade silicon - purification and refining - deposition of polycrystalline silicon ingots - single crystal silicon - silicon wafer cutting.

In fact, our country extracts a large amount of industrial silicon from quartz stone every year and exports it to countries such as Germany, the United States, and Japan at a price of US$1/kg, and these countries process industrial silicon into high-purity crystalline silicon materials, with a price of 46 -Sold to Chinese solar energy companies at a price of US$80/kg.

What is a solar cell and what can it be converted into?

Solar panels convert light energy into electrical energy.

When sunlight hits a solar cell, a photovoltage is generated, which is the photovoltaic effect. If a load is connected to both ends of the solar cell at this time, photocurrent will be generated, thus generating electrical energy. Solar power generation is called photovoltaic power generation.

The solar photovoltaic power generation system is a new type of power generation system that utilizes the photovoltaic effect of solar cell semiconductor materials to directly convert solar radiation energy into electrical energy.

Independent photovoltaic lighting systems generally use batteries as energy storage equipment to store the electrical energy output by solar cells during the day and supply power to lighting loads at night.