Solar Energy Technologies
Solar technology is constantly evolving. It is clear now that for the near future, the most viable method to generate clean, renewable energy, is solar.
Despite the large investments (billion of dollars) and scientific research, almost all commercial and residential solar energy systems use one of 3 technologies: Silicon solar cells, Thin-film solar cells and concentrating solar. Both photovoltaic (P.V.) solar panels (based on solar cells) technologies compete against each other as a solution for residential customers, while concentrating solar and solar panels compete for large scale, commercial installations.
Photovoltaic - Silicon
The first solar panels built from solar cells technology used Silicon as an electricity generator. When sun light hits a silicon atom, an electron is emitted (photoelectric effect) . When enough sunlight hits enough silicon atoms, an electric current is generated. Today, most solar panels installed around the world use Silicon to generate electricity.
The problem with Silicon is that it is expansive. It’s the same Silicon used in modern computer CPU’s. The manufacturing processes of solar cells based on Silicon are also complicated and expansive.Additional, Silicon is not very effective in converting sunlight to electricity - only about a 15% yield.
Photovoltaic - Thin film
As P.V. (solar cells) technology gained popularity, it became clear that using Silicon as the basis for solar cells might limit wide adoption, due to the high price of Silicon. The solution - thin film solar cells.
Thin film solar cells operate the same way as silicon solar cells, but their manufacturing process is much cheaper, and the materials used in the process(glass, stainless still, glass) are much more common in nature than Silicon, and therefore much cheaper.
Despite the price advantages over Silicon P.V., thin film solar cells are less efficient (less than 10% efficiency) than Silicon based solar cells.
Concentrating solar
The most intriguing, and some argue, the most viable solar technology in use today is concentrating solar. Generating enough energy to power tens of thousands of homes, these huge solar fields are made of thousands of mirrors, who concentrate the sun’s light onto a fluid. That fluid heats up, generating steam, which is than converted into electricity using a steam turbine.
Concentrating solar plants are usually built in desert areas, where sunlight is abundant. Building these plants costs hundreds of millions of dollars, but they have one amazing characteristics: their efficiency in converting sunlight to electricity can reach 60% (as oppose to 10-15% for P.V. technology).
Next posts will discuss prices of each technology, incentives and manufacturers.
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