Solar energy in general and that part of it, which is "responsible" for the production of electricity, is developing especially rapidly both in our country and abroad. Financial news feeds are full of messages about new record indicators of the renewable energy industry, which in many countries is already a serious competitor to traditional energy.

Here are some posts. For the first time, the amount of energy from renewable energy sources in the United States exceeded the production of electricity at nuclear power plants by almost 20%. According to the June report of the US Energy Information Administration, the ratio of American generation from renewable energy sources to electricity received at nuclear power plants was 21.6% / 20.3% in March, and in April the balance was already 23% / 19.2% in favor of renewables. Of the 30 days of June in Germany, marked by heavy and prolonged rains, due to a significant surplus of energy generation at solar and wind power plants, 9 days this month had to shut down nuclear power plants, fuel oil, and coal thermal power plants. Since the second week of July, Germany has even shut down several of its nuclear power plants and reduced energy production at nuclear power plants by 26.8%. In the first 6 months of this year, Germany generated 5.83 TWh of electricity from the sun (another 7.22 TWh from wind). This June, electricity from PV plants covered all energy requirements in China's inner province of Qinghai, with a population of 5.6 million, for a whole week.

Increasing the Efficiency of Solar Energy Conversion

The maximum efficiency of solar cells (SCs) based on cascade heterostructures achieved in the laboratory is 42%, for SCs made of silicon it is 24%. Almost all factories produce solar cells with an efficiency of 14-17%.

New designs and technologies for the production of solar cells from silicon have been created, which make it possible to produce solar cells with an efficiency of up to 25% when working with concentrators of solar radiation.

A new generation of solar cells is being developed with an ultimate efficiency of up to 93%, using new physical principles, materials, and structures. The main efforts are directed at a more complete use of the entire spectrum of solar radiation and the total energy of photons according to the principle: each photon must be absorbed in a graded-gap or cascade semiconductor with a forbidden gap, the width of which corresponds to the energy of this photon. This will reduce the losses in the solar cell by 47%. For this, the following are being developed: cascade solar cells made of semiconductors with different band gap widths; solar cells with variable bandgap; solar cells with impurity energy levels in the forbidden zone, which allow increasing the long-wavelength boundary of the photoelectric effect due to multiphoton absorption.

Other approaches to increasing the efficiency of solar cells are associated with the use of concentrated solar radiation, the creation of nanocrystalline solar cells. New technologies and materials will allow in the next five years to increase the efficiency of laboratory solar cells based on cascade heterostructures up to 45%, and industrial up to 30%. For SC made of silicon, the value of these parameters will be 30% and 25%, respectively.

Solar Energy Infiltrates Businesses and Homes

The innovation aims to transform solar energy from a subsidiary sector to a dominant one globally. As solar technology continues to advance, future PV installations may be fully self-contained, further reducing the LCOE. The transition to solar energy will benefit not only network operators but also the general public.

For example, continuous innovation has enabled Huawei to create a broad portfolio of PV systems covering solar farms, microgrids, and commercial and residential properties. Currently, Huawei's smart solar solutions maximize power output while reducing operating maintenance costs in more than 60 countries.

Huawei's smart solar solutions automatically track the sun in the Chinese city of Ningxia to revitalize the desert landscape and local economy with a huge goji berry farm.

The power of solar panels depends on several factors. For example, shading one panel will affect the performance of the entire array. Therefore, when maximum performance is required, combining individual solar panels with Huawei optimizers can increase the energy output of the entire solar array. The technology optimizes the electrical current from each solar panel in the array, allowing them to operate individually. This means shading one panel will not affect the performance of others and will result in up to 30% more energy yield from the overall system.

In addition, Huawei smart inverters, which can detect solar panel problems, can save up to 95% of on-site troubleshooting time, dramatically reducing operating and maintenance costs. Since the system can quickly detect solar panel problems, it reduces power wastage for residential and commercial users.

Solar Silicon Production

In the structure of the price of a solar cell, the cost of silicon and other materials is 76%.

Methods to reduce silicon consumption include increasing the volume and size of the grown crystalline silicon ingots and reducing the thickness of solar cells. In 2010, the mass of a silicon ingot obtained by the directional solidification method will reach 1000 kg, and its volume will be 0.4 m3. The SC thickness will decrease from 400 microns in 2000 to 200 microns in 2008, to 100 microns in 2010, and 2 - 20 microns in 2015.

New technologies are being developed for producing silicon in the form of thin sheets, tapes, films with laser cutting, and automation of the process of manufacturing solar cells.

Increased Service Life of Modules

To increase the service life of the modules, it is necessary to exclude from the module design polymeric materials: ethylene, vinyl, acetate and tedlar, which limit the service life of the modules to 20-25 years. In the new design of the solar module, the solar cells are placed in a double-glazed unit of two sheets of glass, connected at the ends by soldering or welding. This sealing technology guarantees a module service life of 40 years. To reduce the temperature of the solar cell and optical losses, the inner cavity of the module is filled with an organosilicon polymer.

Battery Storage

As major natural disasters, often caused by climate change, occur more and more frequently, the focus on solar batteries is growing and growing. According to the global outsourcing market development in 2021 more and more engineers are working with these solutions. Engre.co which is one of the most popular engineering online marketplaces presents a lot of manufacturing companies and solutions. So if you are wondering “how to hire world-class engineers”, just go to the engineering platform.

Solar energy can be stored in batteries and used during power outages, load outages, or other weather-related outages that affect the overall electrical grid. The more solar panels you have, the longer your home or business can go without electricity from your local energy supplier and the more you save on energy costs.