Photovoltaics - the Solar Panels of the future?

There have been a lot of advances in photovoltaic technology in the last few years. Certainly, photovoltaics has been one of the major 'watch with interest' sectors of the solar energy industry.

Only now however, are changes occurring that just might make photovoltaics truly competitive in the energy market.

In this article, we're going to look at some of the basic attributes and types of photovoltaics.

There are several ways in which Photovoltaics can be installed. This depends on what kind of system you have.

For all types of Photovoltaics you will need the panels. You'll also need an inverter. This is because photovoltaics create DC electricity. (DC stands for direct current.)

Most houses run on AC electricity. (AC = alternating current. Like the band AC/DC.)

An inverter turns DC into AC. AC/DC - DC/AC. So once the electrical current is turned into AC, it can go to several places.

It can go to power any appliances you have on at the time - fridges, lights, etc. If you're using any power at home, this electricity can go back into the grid.

This is called a grid-tied system. And the selling of your excess solar power back to the grid is called Net Metering. This is the fun part of watching your power meter run backwards.

If you have a battery system, your excess solar power can charge your batteries. For this you need a battery charge controller to prevent the batteries from over charging.

If you have batteries, then you can have electricity even if all the grid power goes down in the middle of the night. Otherwise, you will only have solar electricity if the sun is shining and your solar panels are making electricity.

The last part of a solar panel system is the grounding circuit. This is basically a fuse that 'earths' the solar panel. It is also a manual shut-off for your net metering.

A grounding circuit redirects lightning strikes to earth. It also means that if the power goes down you can disconnect your system from the grid. This is so people can work on the grid power system without being electrocuted by your solar power. This is often compulsory as part of getting a solar panel certified by the building council.

Photovoltaics are a kind of solar panel. They take the energy of the sun and turn it into electricity.

Photovoltaic panels or PV's as they are known, turn sun into electricity in a specific way. They use a reaction between silicon and sunlight, (or rather the energy, or photons from sunlight.)

Firstly, photovoltaic panels take silicon and put minute amounts of boron into it. When the sun strikes the impure silicon, a reaction takes place. The impure silicon reacts at a molecular level with the suns energy (called photons.) The photons set off a stream of electrons.

This stream of electrons is called electricity.

The four main types of photovoltaics are:

• Single-crystal silicon
• Polycrystal silicon
• Ribbon silicon
• Thin Film (Amorphous silicon)

They each have different advantages and disadvantages. Single-crystal panels have sliced wafers of silicon. They are more efficient (they make more electricity from sunshine) than the other types. They are also more expensive.

Polycrystal works in a similar way to single crystal. Polycrystal panels are less efficient, but cheaper to make, so you could buy more panels for the same electrical output, and maybe for a similar price.

Ribbon silicon panels are made from molten silicon instead of thin slices of silicon. They have similar properties, though they do have a rainbow sheen instead of a dark blue or black color.

Thin film photovoltaics. This is where, quite recently, some very interesting advances in technology have been made. Although thin film is a less efficient panel than the other types above, they are much cheaper to produce.

The panels use extremely small amounts of silicon in a 'thin film.' This silicon is printed onto glass, plastic or metal. This gives them a huge amount of flexibility in where they are used.

There is a lot involved in Photovoltaics....So...I've asked a question in the comment section below, and would be very interested to hear your thoughts.