Pub Date : 2022-01-20DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.101449
Muhammad Aamir Iqbal, Maria Malik, Wajeehah Shahid, Syed Zaheer Ud Din, N. Anwar, M. Ikram, F. Idrees
As a consequence of rising concern about the impact of fossil fuel-based energy on global warming and climate change, photovoltaic cell technology has advanced significantly in recent years as a sustainable source of energy. To date, photovoltaic cells have been split into four generations, with the first two generations accounting for the majority of the current market. First generation of thin-film technologies is based on monocrystalline or polycrystalline silicon and gallium arsenide cells and includes well-known medium- or low-cost technologies with moderate yields, whereas, second generation includes devices with lower efficiency and manufacturing costs. Third generation is based on novel materials and has a wide range of design options, as well as expensive but highly efficient cells. However, fourth generation, also known as “inorganics-in-organics,” combines the low cost and flexibility of polymer thin films with the durability of innovative inorganic nanostructures (metal nanoparticles or metal oxides) in organic-based nanomaterials (carbon nanotubes, graphene, and their derivatives). The aim of this chapter was to highlight the current state of photovoltaic cell technology in terms of manufacturing materials and efficiency by providing a comprehensive overview of the four generations as well as the relevance of graphene and its derivatives in solar cell applications.
{"title":"Materials for Photovoltaics: Overview, Generations, Recent Advancements and Future Prospects","authors":"Muhammad Aamir Iqbal, Maria Malik, Wajeehah Shahid, Syed Zaheer Ud Din, N. Anwar, M. Ikram, F. Idrees","doi":"10.5772/intechopen.101449","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101449","url":null,"abstract":"As a consequence of rising concern about the impact of fossil fuel-based energy on global warming and climate change, photovoltaic cell technology has advanced significantly in recent years as a sustainable source of energy. To date, photovoltaic cells have been split into four generations, with the first two generations accounting for the majority of the current market. First generation of thin-film technologies is based on monocrystalline or polycrystalline silicon and gallium arsenide cells and includes well-known medium- or low-cost technologies with moderate yields, whereas, second generation includes devices with lower efficiency and manufacturing costs. Third generation is based on novel materials and has a wide range of design options, as well as expensive but highly efficient cells. However, fourth generation, also known as “inorganics-in-organics,” combines the low cost and flexibility of polymer thin films with the durability of innovative inorganic nanostructures (metal nanoparticles or metal oxides) in organic-based nanomaterials (carbon nanotubes, graphene, and their derivatives). The aim of this chapter was to highlight the current state of photovoltaic cell technology in terms of manufacturing materials and efficiency by providing a comprehensive overview of the four generations as well as the relevance of graphene and its derivatives in solar cell applications.","PeriodicalId":102250,"journal":{"name":"Thin Films Photovoltaics [Working Title]","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122390023","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-31DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.101744
Kaiwen Sun, Fang-yang Liu, X. Hao
Kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4-xSex (CZTS) is a promising thin film photovoltaic (PV) material with low cost and nontoxic constitute as well as decent PV properties, being regarded as a PV technology that is truly compatible with terawatt deployment. The kesterite CZTS thin film solar cell has experienced impressive development since its first report in 1996 with power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of only 0.66% to current highest value of 13.0%, while the understanding of the material, device physics, and loss mechanism is increasingly demanded. This chapter will review the development history of kesterite technology, present the basic material properties, and summarize the loss mechanism and strategies to tackle these problems to date. This chapter will help researchers have brief background knowledge of kesterite CZTS technology and understand the future direction to further propel this new technology forward.
{"title":"Kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4-xSex Thin Film Solar Cells","authors":"Kaiwen Sun, Fang-yang Liu, X. Hao","doi":"10.5772/intechopen.101744","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101744","url":null,"abstract":"Kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4-xSex (CZTS) is a promising thin film photovoltaic (PV) material with low cost and nontoxic constitute as well as decent PV properties, being regarded as a PV technology that is truly compatible with terawatt deployment. The kesterite CZTS thin film solar cell has experienced impressive development since its first report in 1996 with power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of only 0.66% to current highest value of 13.0%, while the understanding of the material, device physics, and loss mechanism is increasingly demanded. This chapter will review the development history of kesterite technology, present the basic material properties, and summarize the loss mechanism and strategies to tackle these problems to date. This chapter will help researchers have brief background knowledge of kesterite CZTS technology and understand the future direction to further propel this new technology forward.","PeriodicalId":102250,"journal":{"name":"Thin Films Photovoltaics [Working Title]","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115968371","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-25DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.100437
Esteban Velilla Hernandez, Juan Bernardo Cano Quintero, Juan Felipe Montoya, I. Mora‐Seró, Franklin Jaramillo Isaza
In the case of emerging photovoltaic technologies such as perovskite, most published works have focused on laboratory-scale cells, indoor conditions and no international standards have been fully established and adopted. Accordingly, this chapter shows a brief introduction on the standards and evaluation methods for perovskite solar minimodules under natural sunlight conditions. Therefore, we propose evaluating the outdoor performance in terms of power, following the international standard IEC 61853–1 to obtain the performance according to the power rating conditions. After some rigorous experimental evaluations, results shown that the maximum power (Pmax) evolution for the analyzed minimodules could be correlated with one of the three patterns commonly described for degradation processes in the literature, named convex, linear, and concave. These patterns were used to estimate the degradation rate and lifetime (T80). Moreover, ideality factor (nID) was estimated from the open-circuit voltage (Voc) dependence on irradiance and ambient temperature (outdoor data) to provide physical insight into the recombination mechanism dominating the performance during the exposure. In this context, it was observed that the three different degradation patterns identified for Pmax can also be identified by nID. Finally, based on the linear relationship between T80 and the time to first reach nID = 2 (TnID2), is demonstrated that nID analysis could offer important complementary information with important implications for this technology outdoor development, due that the changes in nID could be correlated with the recombination mechanisms and degradation processes occurring in the device.
{"title":"Outdoor Performance of Perovskite Photovoltaic Technology","authors":"Esteban Velilla Hernandez, Juan Bernardo Cano Quintero, Juan Felipe Montoya, I. Mora‐Seró, Franklin Jaramillo Isaza","doi":"10.5772/intechopen.100437","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100437","url":null,"abstract":"In the case of emerging photovoltaic technologies such as perovskite, most published works have focused on laboratory-scale cells, indoor conditions and no international standards have been fully established and adopted. Accordingly, this chapter shows a brief introduction on the standards and evaluation methods for perovskite solar minimodules under natural sunlight conditions. Therefore, we propose evaluating the outdoor performance in terms of power, following the international standard IEC 61853–1 to obtain the performance according to the power rating conditions. After some rigorous experimental evaluations, results shown that the maximum power (Pmax) evolution for the analyzed minimodules could be correlated with one of the three patterns commonly described for degradation processes in the literature, named convex, linear, and concave. These patterns were used to estimate the degradation rate and lifetime (T80). Moreover, ideality factor (nID) was estimated from the open-circuit voltage (Voc) dependence on irradiance and ambient temperature (outdoor data) to provide physical insight into the recombination mechanism dominating the performance during the exposure. In this context, it was observed that the three different degradation patterns identified for Pmax can also be identified by nID. Finally, based on the linear relationship between T80 and the time to first reach nID = 2 (TnID2), is demonstrated that nID analysis could offer important complementary information with important implications for this technology outdoor development, due that the changes in nID could be correlated with the recombination mechanisms and degradation processes occurring in the device.","PeriodicalId":102250,"journal":{"name":"Thin Films Photovoltaics [Working Title]","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130965458","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}