Growth of PV Efficiencies and Why

Growth of PV Efficiencies and Why
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Photovoltaic cell (PV) is an electrical device that converts light energy to electrical energy. Also referred to as solar cell. The first photovoltaic cell was built by a 19 year old French physicist in 1839 as he was experimenting in his father`s house. The conversion efficiency can be described as the amount of solar energy that the PV cell converts to electrical energy.
In the recent past, there has been massive improvement and developments in photovoltaic technologies. The cost of manufacturing PV and sale prices has also drastically reduced. One might ask why this has been the case.PV systems can be put into three categories: Power electronics, BOS and PV modules. Modules comprise of interconnected photovoltaic cells which convert light energy directly into electric energy. The main reason for PV cell development is primarily to reduce cost of PV systems down a level that is compatible with modern means of power generation. There are essentially two ways of increasing the efficiency of solar cells: the first approach involves selecting semi conductor materials which have appropriate energy gaps which can match the solar spectrum while efficiently optimizing on their structural, electrical and optical properties. The second means is what can be simply termed as innovative device engineering; this allows more charge collection and utilization of the solar spectrum.There is no single definition of a high efficient PV device. Efficiency involves how such a device functions and its impact on the running cost. One can, however, categorize devices into different efficiency categories: ultra-efficiency devices (more than 30% efficient) made by using multijunction tandem cells; high efficiency (>20%) cells are fabricated from high quality single crystal silicon materials; efficient cells (12%-20%) comprise of several polycrystalline and amorphous semi conductor materials; moderate efficiency cells (<12%) are low cost devices.Energy conversion of a PV cell can be measured by getting the significant ration of the electrical power produced by the cell to the amount of light power falling on the cell. Several factors as spectral distribution, temperature, spatial distribution and resistive load on the cell influence the power output of a PV cell. The resistive load is regulated up to the maximum power point (MPP). It has,...