Top 3 Types of Solar Cells for Your Home or Office

here are three leading technologies in the world of Solar Cells. These are mono-crystalline, poly-crystalline and amorphous silicon cells. Each one has its own set of advantages that makes it unique.

The Solar Cells are the basic components that make a solar panel, which is used for generating power. These cells are also known as photovoltaic or PV cells and the most commonly used technology makes use of silicon for manufacturing these cells. Silicon is the same element that is used for making transistors and ICs.

Generation of Electric Current

The silicon used in making Solar Cells is not pure, as it is added with impurities or in other terms it is ‘doped.’ This is done to make it electrically conductible, so that when sunlight hits the atoms, electrons are knocked off to form large number of freely moving electrons. This is the process that leads to the formation of electric current in a solar panel.

Types of Solar Cells

The available PV technology today offers three main types of Solar Cells. These are:

1. Mono-crystalline Cells – These cells are sawn from one silicon ingot made from a single crystal of silicon.

2. Poly-crystalline Cells – These multi-crystalline cells are sawn from an ingot grown from several silicon crystals.

3. Thin-Film cells – This is a relatively new technology, which is also known as amorphous silicon technology.

Crystalline PV Cells

Crystalline Solar Cells are wired together in a series in order to create a solar panel. Each of the cells generates around 0.5 V of voltage, and with 36 cells connected in a series it is possible to generate 20 Volts. In most cases, this amount of power is enough for charging a 12 V battery. The mono-crystalline cells are a little more efficient than poly-crystalline cells. And, compared to the amorphous cell technology, the crystalline cell technology has a longer lifetime.

Amorphous PV Cells

Amorphous PV cell technology is mostly used in the case of smaller solar panels as in garden lamps and calculators. However, today with increase in efficiency, they are also being used for larger applications. Usually, this technology involves coating of a thin film of silicon on a sheet of steel or glass. In this case, the individual Solar Cells would not be distinct as in the case of the crystalline technology. And, the solar panel would be formed as a single piece.

Features

The amorphous Solar Cells don’t have efficiency that is as high as that offered by the crystalline PV cells. However, they have the edge when it comes to the cost of generating one watt of power, which is relatively low. However, the lower power density requires larger number of panels for generating the same power and this means a larger area is required for installing these panels.