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A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by using the photovoltaic effect.

Individual solar cell devices are often the electrical building blocks of photovoltaic modules, known colloquially as "solar panels". The common single-junction silicon solar cell can produce a maximum open-circuit voltage of approximately 0.5 to 0.6 volts. In addition to producing solar power, they can be used as a photodetector (for example infrared detectors), to detect light or other electromagnetic radiation near the visible light range, as well as to measure light intensity.

There are multiple input factors that affect the output power of solar cells, such as temperature, material properties, weather conditions, solar irradiance and more. direct heat as a "solar thermal module" or "solar hot water panel" Arrays of solar cells are used to make solar modules that generate a usable amount of direct current (DC) from sunlight. Strings of solar modules create a solar array to generate solar power using solar energy, many times using an inverter to convert the solar power to alternating current (AC).

Electric vehicles that operate off of solar energy or sunlight are commonly referred to as solar cars. These vehicles use solar panels to convert absorbed light into electrical energy to be used by electric motors, with any excess energy stored in batteries.

Multiple solar cells in an integrated group, all oriented in one plane, constitute a solar photovoltaic panel or module. Multiple solar cells assembled together in a single plane form a solar photovoltaic (PV) panel or module.

The success of the space solar power market drove the development of higher efficiencies in solar cells, due to limited other power options and the desire for the best possible cells, up until the National Science Foundation "Research Applied to National Needs" program began to push development of solar cells for terrestrial applications.

Other possible solar cell types are organic solar cells, dye sensitized solar cells, perovskite solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, etc.

In addition, the dual-junction device was mechanically stacked with a Si solar cell, to achieve a record one-sun efficiency of 35.9% for triple-junction solar cells.

As of 2016, the most popular and efficient solar cells were those made from thin wafers of silicon which are also the oldest solar cell technology.

In 2022, researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg, Germany, demonstrated a record solar cell efficiency of 47.6% under 665-fold sunlight concentration with a four-junction concentrator solar cell.

A dual-junction solar cell with a band gap of 1.6–1.8 eV as a top cell can reduce thermalization loss, produce a high external radiative efficiency and achieve theoretical efficiencies over 45%.

Perovskite solar cells are solar cells that include a perovskite-structured material as the active layer.

Intermediate band photovoltaics in solar cell research provides methods for exceeding the Shockley–Queisser limit on the efficiency of a cell.

The dye-sensitized solar cell depends on this mesoporous layer of nanoparticulate titanium dioxide (TiO2) to greatly amplify the surface area (200–300 m2/g TiO2, as compared to approximately 10 m2/g of flat single crystal) which allows for a greater number of dyes per solar cell area (which in term in increases the current).

Quantum dot solar cells (QDSCs) are based on the Gratzel cell, or dye-sensitized solar cell architecture, but employ low band gap semiconductor nanoparticles, fabricated with crystallite sizes small enough to form quantum dots (such as CdS, CdSe, Sb2S3, PbS, etc.), instead of organic or organometallic dyes as light absorbers.

At the part of the cell where the light is most intense, the cell surface changes from reflective to adaptive, allowing the light to penetrate the cell.

The most widely used solar cells in the market are crystalline solar cells.

Quick Facts

• Other possible solar cell types are organic solar cells, dye sensitized solar cells, perovskite solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, etc.
• Strings of solar modules create a solar array to generate solar power using solar energy, many times using an inverter to convert the solar power to alternating current (AC).
• Individual solar cell devices are often the electrical building blocks of photovoltaic modules, known colloquially as "solar panels".
• In 2022, researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg, Germany, demonstrated a record solar cell efficiency of 47.6% under 665-fold sunlight concentration with a four-junction concentrator solar cell.
• The common single-junction silicon solar cell can produce a maximum open-circuit voltage of approximately 0.5 to 0.6 volts.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Solar cell". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.