What are the characteristics of photovoltaic solar cells

Research laboratories and related industries all over the world are moving towards the goal of producing low-cost, high-efficiency solar cells and are constantly developing new application areas. Solar cells have different manufacturing methods, so photovoltaic solar cells have different characteristics.

The semiconductor materials used to make solar cells have different band gaps, and their spectral responses to incident light are also different, that is, their ability to absorb photons of different wavelengths is different. Every semiconductor material has a threshold energy, that is, the forbidden band width. When the absorbed photon energy exceeds the forbidden band width, electrons are excited from the valence band to the conduction band; when the energy is lower than the forbidden band width, the photoelectric effect cannot be produced. The photoelectric effect is determined by the energy of the incident light rather than the intensity of the light. Increasing the intensity of light only correspondingly increases the number of photoelectrons produced in the photoelectric effect. In practical applications, the light absorbed by the solar cell includes the sunlight directly incident on the surface and the diffusely reflected light from surrounding objects. The surface of the solar cell is coated with anti-reflective material to reduce the reflection on the surface and absorb as much incident light as possible.

Photovoltaic solar cells can be assembled through a series of structures to form a module. Modules can be connected in series and parallel to form an array. When the solar cells or modules are connected in series, the rated current should be the same, and the output voltage should be increased to increase the output power; when the cells or modules are connected in parallel, the rated voltage should be the same, and the output current should be increased to increase the output power.

Composition of solar photovoltaic system,You can learn more.