Have you ever seen a piece of black neatly arranged boards in the suburbs? They are solar panels. Converting solar energy into electricity by using silicon materials is an emerging renewable energy technology, also known as "photovoltaic cells" or "solar chips".
Under the background of vigorously developing and utilizing renewable resources and other new resources in the new era, solar power generation is a relatively commonly used green energy in my country. Solar power generation is further divided into photovoltaic power generation and photothermal power generation, the most common being photovoltaic power generation.
Photovoltaic power generation has the characteristics of "easy installation, easy maintenance, low energy consumption, and scalability", while solar thermal power generation heats the medium through a concentrating heat collection system, and then uses traditional steam power generation equipment to generate power. The structure and working principle are relatively complicated. In comparison, photovoltaic power generation is easier to be widely developed.
The operation of photovoltaic power generation is inseparable from solar panels. The basic structure of solar panels is mainly composed of electronic components. Adding controllers, batteries and inverters to the basic structure forms a solar power supply system.
Common solar panels basically use silicon for energy conversion, which can be divided into monocrystalline silicon and polycrystalline silicon in terms of production methods. The photoelectric conversion efficiency of monocrystalline silicon solar panels is higher than that of polycrystalline silicon solar panels, and the production cost is also high; the conversion efficiency of polycrystalline silicon solar panels is lower than that of monocrystalline silicon solar panels, but the total production cost is also lower. .
In addition, there is another kind of solar panel called amorphous silicon solar panel. Its manufacturing method is completely different from that of monocrystalline silicon and polycrystalline silicon solar panels. The manufacturing process is much simplified, and it can also generate electricity under insufficient lighting conditions. But its conversion efficiency is very low, so it is rarely used.
Specifically, the working principle of the solar panel is to inject phosphorus into the top layer of silicon through the semiconductor interface of two pieces of silicon to provide it with additional negatively charged electrons. At the same time, boron is added to the bottom layer to obtain a certain positive charge. In this way, the electric field is increased at the junction between the silicon layers. When a photon in sunlight hits an electron, the electric field will push the electron out of the junction of the two silicon layers, and the electrons will be collected by the metal conductive plate on the side. A technology that converts light energy directly into electrical energy.