Photovoltaic Solar Energy

From Fundamentals to Applications

Contemporary overview of photovoltaic (PV) technology innovations from materials to modules and grid integration

Solar PV is now the third most important renewable energy source, after hydro and wind power, in terms of global installed capacity. Bringing together the expertise of international PV specialists Photovoltaic Solar Energy: From Fundamentals to Applications provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account of existing PV technologies in conjunction with an assessment of technological developments.

Key Features:

• Written by leading Specialists active in current developments in material sciences, solar cell research and application-driven R&D.
• Provides a basic knowledge base in light, photons and solar irradiance and basic functional principles of PV.
• Covers characterization techniques, economics and applications of PV such as silicon, thin-film and hybrid solar cells.
• Presents a Compendium PV technologies including: crystalline silicon technologies; chalcogenide thin film solar cells; thin-film silicon-based PV technologies; organic PV and III-Vs; PV concentrator technologies; space technologies and economics, life-cycle and user aspects of PV technologies.
• Each chapter presents basic principles and formulas as well as major technological developments in a contemporary context with a look at future developments in this rapidly changing field of science and engineering.

Ideal for Industrial engineers and scientists beginning a career in PV as well as graduate students undertaking PV research, and high-level undergraduate students.

ANGÈLE REINDERS, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

PIERRE VERLINDEN, Trina Solar, Changzhou, Jiangsu, China

WILFRIED VAN SARK, Copernicus Institute, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

ALEXANDRE FREUNDLICH, University of Houston, Texas, USA

Klappentext

Photovoltaic Solar Energy

From Fundamentals to Applications

Contemporary overview of photovoltaic (PV) technology innovations from materials to modules and grid integration

Solar PV is now the third most important renewable energy source, after hydro and wind power, in terms of global installed capacity. Bringing together the expertise of international PV specialists Photovoltaic Solar Energy: From Fundamentals to Applications provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account of existing PV technologies in conjunction with an assessment of technological developments.

Key Features:

• Written by leading Specialists active in current developments in material sciences, solar cell research and application-driven R&D.
• Provides a basic knowledge base in light, photons and solar irradiance and basic functional principles of PV.
• Covers characterization techniques, economics and applications of PV such as silicon, thin-film and hybrid solar cells.
• Presents a Compendium PV technologies including: crystalline silicon technologies; chalcogenide thin film solar cells; thin-film silicon-based PV technologies; organic PV and III-Vs; PV concentrator technologies; space technologies and economics, life-cycle and user aspects of PV technologies.
• Each chapter presents basic principles and formulas as well as major technological developments in a contemporary context with a look at future developments in this rapidly changing field of science and engineering.

Ideal for Industrial engineers and scientists beginning a career in PV as well as graduate students undertaking PV research, and high-level undergraduate students.

Zusammenfassung

Solar PV is now the third most important renewable energy source, after hydro and wind power, in terms of global installed capacity. Bringing together the expertise of international PV specialists Photovoltaic Solar Energy: From Fundamentals to Applications provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account of existing PV technologies in conjunction with an assessment of technological developments.

Key features:

• Written by leading specialists active in concurrent developments in material sciences, solar cell research and application-driven R&D.
• Provides a basic knowledge base in light, photons and solar irradiance and basic functional principles of PV.
• Covers characterization techniques, economics and applications of PV such as silicon, thin-film and hybrid solar cells.
• Presents a compendium of PV technologies including: crystalline silicon technologies; chalcogenide thin film solar cells; thin-film silicon based PV technologies; organic PV and III-Vs; PV concentrator technologies; space technologies and economics, life-cycle and user aspects of PV technologies.
• Each chapter presents basic principles and formulas as well as major technological developments in a contemporary context with a look at future developments in this rapidly changing field of science and engineering.

Ideal for industrial engineers and scientists beginning careers in PV as well as graduate students undertaking PV research and high-level undergraduate students.

List of Contributors xxvii

Foreword xxxii

Acknowledgments xxxiv

About the Companion Website xxxv

Part One Introduction to Photovoltaics 1

1.1 Introduction 3
Angèle Reinders, Wilfried van Sark, and Pierre Verlinden

Part Two Basic Functional Principles of Photovoltaics 13

2.1 Semiconductor Materials and their Properties 15
Angèle Reinders

2.2 Doping, Diffusion, and Defects in Solar Cells 21
Pierre J. Verlinden

2.3 Absorption and Generation 32
Seth Hubbard

2.4 Recombination 39
Seth Hubbard

2.5 Carrier Transport 47
Seth Hubbard

2.6 PN Junctions and the Diode Equation 54
Seth Hubbard

Part Three Crystalline Silicon Technologies 67

3.1 Silicon Materials: Electrical and Optical Properties 69
Andreas Fell

3.2 Silicon Solar Cell Device Structures 80
Andrew Blakers and Ngwe Zin

3.3 Interdigitated Back Contact Solar Cells 92
Pierre Verlinden

3.4 Heterojunction Silicon Solar Cells 104
Wilfried van Sark

3.5 Surface Passivation and Emitter Recombination Parameters 114
Bram Hoex

3.6 Passivated Contacts 125
Martin Hermle

3.7 Light Management in Silicon Solar Cells 136
Zachary Holman and Mathieu Boccard

3.8 Numerical Simulation of Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells 150
Pietro Altermatt

3.9 Advanced Concepts 160
Martin Green

Part Four Chalcogenide Thin Film Solar Cells 167

4.1 Basics of Chalcogenide Thin Film Solar Cells 169
Susanne Siebentritt

4.2 Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ and CdTe Absorber Materials and their Properties 179
Sylvain Marsillac

4.3 Contacts, Buffers, Substrates, and Interfaces 190
Negar Naghavi

4.4 CIGS Module Design and Manufacturing 204
William Shafarman

Part Five Thin Film SiliconBased PV Technologies 213

5.1 Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Silicon Solar Cells 215
Etienne Moulin, JanWillem Schüttauf, and Christophe Ballif

5.2 Thin Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells on Glass 226
Onno Gabriel, Daniel Amkreutz, Jan Haschke, Bernd Rech, and Rutger Schlatmann

5.3 Light Management in Crystalline and Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells 238
Franz Haug

5.4 New Future Concepts 2…