If you’re in need of solar panel energy for your home or business, there are various solar panel technologies that can provide it. These include monocrystalline, polycrystalline, PERC and thin-film panels.
Solar panel technology has seen incredible advancements recently, revolutionizing how energy is harvested from the sun. These new methods are lighter, more adaptable and accessible to more places than ever before.
1. Thin-Film Solar Cells
Thin-film solar cells are an efficient form of photovoltaic technology, employing one or more layers of thin-film materials to absorb light and generate electricity. Common materials used in their manufacture include amorphous silicon (a-Si), cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) or dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) technologies.
Thin-film solar cells are less sensitive to temperature and radiation than crystalline solar panels, making them more convenient and adaptable. Nowadays, thin-film solar cells come from various manufacturers for both residential and commercial uses.
When considering installing solar panels, it’s essential to comprehend the differences between monocrystalline, polycrystalline and thin film solar cells. All three produce different amounts of electricity so it’s essential that you calculate your energy needs before investing in a system.
Polycrystalline solar panels tend to be more efficient than monocrystalline and have a higher power output rating than thin film panels, meaning you can save more on your energy bills over the lifetime of your system. Unfortunately, they lack the same subtle aesthetic as monocrystalline panels and tend to be costlier as well.
2. Perovskite Solar Cells
Perovskites are crystalline materials at the forefront of solar panel research. Their advantages include being lightweight and cost-effective to manufacture.
However, perovskite solar cells still face several hurdles that need to be overcome before they can become commercially successful. One major issue is stability.
Perovskite solar cells in the lab have a tendency to deteriorate quickly when exposed to air, moisture and heat, decreasing their efficiency of power conversion. This has proven a challenge for scientists working with the material and is expected to remain an issue until PSC technology can be scaled up sufficiently for commercial availability.
3. Liquid Crystal Solar Cells
Similar to how ink is printed on paper to form newspapers, researchers are discovering that liquid crystals can be used for solar panel production. They do this by coating sheets of perovskite with a liquid that quickly dries into crystals.
These crystals line up in such a way that makes them highly conductive to electricity even when not receiving sunlight. Furthermore, they’re much simpler and quicker to create than the crystals found in panels of silicon-based solar cells.
Furthermore, the scientists suggest using liquid crystals to cover structural surfaces like walls of buildings in order to transform them into solar panels.
Another group of researchers is investigating the use of liquid crystals as a polymer gel electrolyte to enhance dye-sensitized solar cell performance. Devices filled with these gel electrolytes had higher average efficiency and peak power conversion efficiency compared to those using a reference liquid electrolyte.
4. Nanocrystalline Solar Cells
Nanocrystalline solar cells are composed of layers of microscopic crystals held together with molecular glue. These cells boast superior optical properties and can absorb more sunlight than traditional silicon-based solar panels.
These cells offer several advantages over crystalline silicon-based solar panels, such as flexibility and cost effectiveness. Unfortunately, they still cannot produce as much power as crystalline silicon does and only reach 7% efficiency levels.
Scientists are trying to improve the efficiency of these cells by understanding how changes in crystal size, material composition or molecules that bind them together affect how electrons move through a composite.
Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed an accessible physical model to explain how different factors affect electron transport in a nanocrystal-based solar cell. This insight could enable scientists to create better nanocrystal-composites and, eventually, more efficient solar cells.