Abstract
In this work, a short description of the basic aspect of the performance of homojunction solar cells and of the technological aspects of the fabrication of low cost thin film solar ce lis is made. Special emphasis on the historical aspects of the evolution of the convertion efficiency of photovoltaic devices based on crystalline silicon, amorphus silicon, CdTe and CuinSe2 is also made. The state of art of the technology of photovoltaic devices and modules is additionally presented.
The contribution to the development of high efficiency solar cells and modules, carri~d out by research Centers ofUniversities such us: Stuttgart University (Germany), Stocholm University (Sweden), Universiy of South Florida (USA), University of South Gales (Australia), by the National Renevable Energy Laboratory of USA and by research Centers of Companies such us: Matsushita (Japan), BP-Solar (England), Boeing (USA), Arco Solar (USA), Siemens (germany) etc. are specially emphasized.
Additionally, a section conceming economical aspects of the photovoltaic generation of electric energy is enclosed. In this section an overview of the evolution of price and world market of photovoltaic system is presented.
References
Adams, G. & R.E. Day. 1977. Proc. Royal Soc. A 25: 131.
Barnet, A.M. 1996. 25th IEEE Photov. Spec. Conf. Washington D.C.
Becquerel, E. 1839. Comptes Rendues 9: 561.
Carlson, D.E. & C.R. Wronsky. 1976. Appl. Phys. Lett., 28: 671.
Cusano, O.A. 1963. Solid State Electron 6: 217.
Cutts, T.J. & J.D. Meakings (eds). 1985. "Current topics in photovoltaics", Academic Press, Orlando.
Chaplin, D.H., C.S. Fuller & G.L. Pearson. 1945. J. Appl. Phys. 25: 676.
Ferekides, C. et al. 1993. Proc. 26th IEEE Photov. Spec. Conf., pp. 389.
Green, M.A. et al. 1985. Conf. Rec. 18th IEEE Photov. Spec. Conf., Las Vegas (USA) pp. 61.
Hedstrom, J. et al. 1993. 23rd IEEE Photov. Spec. Conf., Louisville (USA).
Kazmerski, L., F.R. White & G.K. Morgan. 1976. Appl. Phys. Lett., 29: 268.
Lincot, D. et al. 1995. 13th Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conf., Nice pp. 178.
Lindmayer, J. & Allison. 1993. COMSAT Tech. Rev. 3: 1.
Maycock, P.D. S.d. PV News, Yearly Feb.-Issues; PV Energy Systems, Inc., Casanova (VA, USA).
Ohyama, H. et al. 1997. Proc. 26th IEEE Photov. Spec. Conf. pp. 389.
Reynolds, D.C. et al. 1954. Phys. Rev. 96: 533.
Schottky, W. 1950. "Electron and holes in semiconductors," Van Nostrand. New York.
Wang, A., J. Zhao & M.A. Green. 1990. Appl. Phys. Lett. 57: 602-604.
Zweibel, K., H.S. Ullal, & B. Von Roeden. 1997. 26th IEEE Photov. Spec. Conf. Anaheim (USA). In press.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.