Sustainable Energy

Chapter 9
Electricity from
Solar Energy

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Learning Objectives

The generation of electricity from solar energy through

heat engines.
The basic physics of semiconducting materials and the
properties of n-type and p-type materials.
The construction of a semiconducting junction device.
The production of electricity through the interaction of
photons on semiconducting junctions.
The sensitivity and efficiency of photovoltaic devices.
The application of photovoltaic devices for electricity
generation worldwide.
The availability of solar energy and economic viability of
its utilization.

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Solar Electric Generation

Electricity can be generated from solar radiation in two

ways:
Conversion of solar radiation into heat to run a heat
engine to drive a generator
Use of a photoelectric device

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Solar heat engines

Sunlight must be focussed in order to achieve

temperatures that are suitable to operate a heat engine.
The most notable types of solar focussing devices are

Parabolic troughs
Parabolic dishes
Central receivers

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Parabolic troughs

A working fluid is heated by circulating it through a pipe

at the focus of a parabolic trough.
The largest facility of this kind is the Solar Electric
Generating Station at Kramer Junction California.
Efficiency is limited by the Carnot efficiency of the heat
engine at about 15% and maximum output is 350 MWe.

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Solar collectors at Kramer Junction, CA

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Parabolic dishes

An array of parabolic dishes is used to focus sunlight to

either
heat a working fluid to run a heat engine
or
operate a heat engine directly (Stirling engine)
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Parabolic dish collectors in Peoria, AZ

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Central receiver

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A large array of individual flat mirrors that can track the

location of the sun, can be used to focus sunlight on a
central receiver.
Notable experimental facilities have included
Solar One in Daggett, California
Solar Two, which replaced Solar One and had a rated
output of 10 MWe
PS10 in Seville, Spain which has a rated output of
11 MWe
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Solar Two

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Individual mirror from Solar Two

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Photovoltaic devices
Photovoltaic devices are semiconducting devices that
convert solar radiation (or any light) directly into electricity.

Example of a small
photovoltaic device

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Electronic energy levels

The energy levels of electrons in a simple atom

(hydrogen) are quantized according to the relationship

where the energy is related to the principal quantum

number n.

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Multielectron atoms
In a multielectron atom, electron -electron interactions cause
the energy levels to split according to the electron orbital
angular momentum.
Orbital angular momentum quantum number is designated s,
p, d, f, ...

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Electron level occupancy

Each electron level can accommodate a certain

number of electrons

2 for an s level
6 for a p level
10 for a d level
14 for an f level

etc.
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Electronic structure of silicon

A Si atom has 14 electrons which, in their ground

state occupy the levels

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Diagram of Si electronic structure

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Electronic structure of a solid

The above description applies to a single Si atom.

When Si atoms are combined into a solid the interactions
between atoms cause the energy levels to smear out into
bands and it also causes the p bands to split into three subbands with energy gaps between them.
This is the typical electronic structure of a semiconductor.

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Band structure of silicon

The two 3p electrons fill the lowest of the three 3p sub-bands

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Silicon bonding

In a piece of pure silicon each silicon atom has four silicon

neighbors (in a tetrahedral configuration).
The valence electrons from each silicon atom are the two 3s
electrons and the two 3p electrons.
Each silicon gives up one of its valence electrons to each of its
four neighbors.

Each silicon bond is made up of two electrons, one from each

of the neighboring atoms.

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Two dimensional representation of

silicon bonding
The tetrahedral bonds can be represented in a two
dimensional square lattice

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Photon energy

A photon has an energy related to its wavelength by

For energy in eV and wavelength in nm, this is

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Photon interactions with atoms

If a photon with sufficient energy interacts with atoms

in a piece of silicon then one of the electrons in the first
3p band can be excited into the second 3p band.
The missing electron in the lowest 3p band is referred
to as hole and acts like a positive charge.

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Electron-hole formation

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Bonding picture of electron-hole

formation

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Electron-hole recombination

In principle the electron and hole could represent an

electric except that they attract one another and will
recombine.
In the band structure picture, the electron will fall back
into the hole.

In the bonding picture the electron will fill the broken

bond.
To avoid this we need to use two different types of
semiconductor.
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Doped semiconductors

A small amount of impurity can significantly alter the

electrical properties of a semiconductor.

n-type impurities (donors) have one more valence

electron than the host
p-type impurities (acceptors) have one less valence
electron than the host
These impurities create excess electrons or holes, respectively.
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Band structure of n- and p-type

semiconductors

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Creation of electrons or broken

bonds in doped semiconductors

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Charges in doped semiconductors

In a doped semiconductor the excess charge

carriers have (-) or (+) charges and the impurity
atoms have (+) or (-) charges, respectively, for
n-type and p-type materials.

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Semiconducting junctions

A junction made of an n-type and a p-type

semiconductor is the simplest semiconducting
device - a diode.

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Charge distribution in a diode

The free electrons in the n-type material move away

from the junction because they are repelled by the (-)
impurity ions in the p-type material.
The free holes in the p-type material move away from
the junction because they are repelled by the (+)
impurity ions in the n-type material.
This behavior forms the depletion region around the
junction.
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A diode

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Operation of a photodiode

If a photon creates an electron-hole pair in the

depletion region of a diode then the electron and the
hole are carried in opposite directions across the
depletion region before they can recombine.
This is the basis of operation of a photodiode or
photovoltaic cell and shows how light (photons) can be
converted directly into an electric current.

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Characteristics of photovoltaic cells

In order to create electron-hole pairs (an hence an electric

current) photons must have energy equal to (or greater
than) the energy associated with the energy gap.
Different semiconducting materials have different energy
gaps and hence different spectral responses.

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Spectral response of some silicon

and germanium photovoltaic cells

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Photovoltaic efficiency
The efficiency of a photovoltaic device depends on the details
of the device and also the spectrum of the incident light

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Triple junction devices

Efficiency can be
improved for white
light by combining
devices with spectral
response that better
covers the range of
incident wavelengths.

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Cost of photovoltaic electricity

A major difficulty with photovoltaic cells is the cost of
electricity compared to other technologies.

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Decrease in photovoltaic cost over 30 years

Cost of photovoltaics has continued to decline.

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Resource considerations
Many current photovoltaic devices utilize materials that are
of limited availability (see Chapter 2).

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Environmental impact of photovoltaics

Low energy density of sunlight requires substantial
manufacturing to produce photovoltaic infrastructure (see
Chapter 2).

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Human risk
Low energy density of sunlight also means significant human
risk (see Chapter 6).

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Applications of photovoltaic devices

Photovoltaic devices may be of a variety of sizes for

different applications

Small units for portable electronics

Power for isolated locations
Residential electric power
Large installations for grid power

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Photovoltaic array for remotely

located radio transmitter

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Photovoltaic panels for residential

power
Solar settlement, Freiberg, Germany

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Photovoltaics for grid power

14 MWe photovoltaic facility at Nellis Air Force Base, NV

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Global use of photovoltaics

Germany is
the leader (on
a per capita
basis) for
photovoltaic
use.

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Solar power resources

Solar power is the only renewable source that can easily fulfill
world needs.

Total insolation on the earth's surface 91016 W.

Total current world power use 1.81013 W.
At a photovoltaic efficiency of 15% world power requirements
are fulfilled by 0.14% of insolation.
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Comparison of land requirements for solar

to fulfill all primary energy needs for the
U.S. and Canada

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World energy requirements

Six 300300 km2 arrays would fulfill all world needs

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Advantages of solar photovoltaics

Advantages
Easily fulfills world power needs
Indefinitely renewable
Relatively low environmental impact

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Disadvantages of solar photovoltaics

Disadvantages
Currently expensive per unit energy produced
Limits land use
Some environmental impact due to low energy density
Concerns over availability of materials

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Summary
Solar radiation can be converted into electricity through
heat engines or photovoltaics
Applications of heat engines for solar electricity have
been limited
Photovoltaic devices are semiconducting diodes that
produce currents when irradiated with photons
Photovoltaic systems cover a wide range of sizes
Small devices are suitable for powering watches or
calculators
Large systems provide power for the grid
Solar energy is the only renewable source that can easily
fulfill all primary energy needs worldwide
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