What Kind Of Material Are Solar Panels Usually Made Of?

The main material of solar panels is crystalline silicon. According to the manufacturing process and manufacturing cost, crystalline silicon is divided into monocrystalline silicon and polycrystalline silicon.
Monocrystalline silicon solar cells are manufactured from single crystal silicon wafers. In single crystal silicon materials, silicon atoms are arranged periodically in space and have long-range order. This order is conducive to the improvement of the conversion efficiency of solar cells. At present, the conversion efficiency of monocrystalline silicon solar cells is 14%-17%, up to 24%. Monocrystalline silicon solar cells have a mature production process and are widely used in aerospace and high-tech products. However, the manufacturing process of monocrystalline silicon solar cells is complicated, the energy consumption required for manufacturing is large, and the cost is high.
Polycrystalline silicon material is an aggregate of many single crystal particles (particle diameters range from a few micrometers to several millimeters). The size and crystal orientation of individual single crystal particles are different from each other, and the conversion efficiency is about 13% to 15%, up to 20%. Compared with monocrystalline silicon solar cells, the production time of polycrystalline silicon solar cells is shorter, and the manufacturing cost is lower, so it has an important position in the market.