FUTURE OF SOLAR ENERGY

Gytis JUŠKA
Department of Solid State Electronics
Vilnius University
 History of Photovoltaic
1839 - Alexandre Edmond Becquerel observes the photoelectric effect via an
electrode in a conductive solution exposed to light.
1877 - W.G. Adams and R.E. Day observed the photovoltaic effect in solid selenium,
and published a paper on the selenium cell.
1883 - Charles Fritts develops a solar cell using selenium on a thin layer of gold to
form a device giving less than 1% efficiency.
1887 - James Moser reports dye sensitised photoelectrochemical cell.
1932 - Audobert and Stora discover the photovoltaic effect in Cadmium selenide
(CdSe), a photovoltaic material still used today.
1954 - Bell Labs announces the invention of the first modern silicon solar cell. These
cells have about 6% efficiency.
1976 - David Carlson and Christopher Wronski of RCA Laboratories create first
amorphous silicon PV cells, which have an efficiency of 1.1%
1991 - Efficient Photoelectrochemical cells are developed; the Dye-sensitized solar
cell is invented.
2001 – Organic solar cells.
Solar City
World Production Of Oil And Gas
Spectral Power Distribution Of
Solar Radiation
World Insolation Map
Cummulative Installed PV Capacities
 Avg. Annual Growth Rate (%)
Ph
ot

0
10
20
30
40
ov
ol
ta
ic
s
36.4

W
in
d 24.4
Bi
of
ue
ls
17.6

C
H oa
yd
ro l 5.3
el
ec
tri
ci
ty
N
2.9

at
ur
al
G
as
Power Sources

2.9

O
il
1.7

N
uc
le
ar
1.1
Average Growth Rate of Electrical
Market development and Future Market
Growth by Region (MW)
5000
ROW
4500
USA
4000
Shipments in MWp

3500 Germany

3000 Japan
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Source: EPIA World Market Analysis
Yearly Installed PV Power
 Competitiveness. Electricity Generating
Cost For PV And Utility Prices
€/kWh
1.0
900 h/a:
0,60 €/kWh
0.8
1800 h/a:
0,30 €/kWh
0.6
Photovoltaics

Utility peak power 0.4

Bulk power
0.2

0.0
Source: RWE Energie AG and RSS GmbH 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040
PV Module Price Over Cumulative
Production
Solar Cells Market

c-Si 14-17 %

p-Si 13-15 %
Best Research-Cell Efficiencies
Theoretical Efficiency Limit in PV Cells

30% theoretical efficiency limited by band gap of Si material

24% practical efficiency due to reflection, resistive and recombination losses
17% manufacturing status best effective process
PV Efficiency Over Semiconductor’s
Band Gap
Basic Operation
VACh
Limits to Cell Performance
Losses In PV Cells
QE dependence on junction depth
and surface recombination
Influence of Resistance
 0ptical reflections

Optical confinement for light enhancement

Crystalline Si Solar Cell
Technology of Polycrystaline Silicon
Cells Material Costs
Thin Film Cells
 CIGS Cell

Disadvantage: low resources of In, toxic materials.

Optical Absorption in Silicon
a-Si:H
Doping of Silicon
 a-Si:H Solar Cell
Glow Discharge Technology
µc-Si:H
Heterojunctions in Polymers
Efficiencies of Organic Bulk
Heterjunction Cells
Heterojunctions in Polymers
ZnPc+C60
Multilayer Cell
Organic solar cell
Grätzel Cell
Grätzel Cell
Grätzel Cell
Nanostructured Solar Cells
Multijunction Solar Cells
Multijunction Solar Cells
Tandem cell
Concentrated SC
Optical Frequency Shifting
Multiple exciton generation
Hot carrier SC