Starters

The earth receives more energy from the sun in just one hour than the world uses in a whole year.

How exciting is that. Just look at the vast resources we have available for us. It is up to us to innovate and come up with products which will make it economically viable to exploit this abundant form of energy.

At a very high level there are two forms of technology for Solar Energy usage.

The two main categories of technology are defined by the choice of the semiconductor: either crystalline silicon in a wafer form or thin films of other materials.
The Crystalline Silicon is the main technology today with almost 90% of the market whereas the Thin Films market forms the rest. The latter is cheaper but efficiencies are low. Efficiencies of the Solar are still quite low hovering around 10-16%.

Three key elements in a solar cell form the basis of their manufacturing technology.

The first is the semiconductor, which absorbs light and converts it into electron-hole pairs.
The second is the semiconductor junction, which separates the photo-generated carriers (electrons and holes), and
The third is the contacts on the front and back of the cell that allow the current to flow to the external circuit.

Moving forward we will explore each technology in depth and also look at companies which are in the market for the same.

All About Solar Energy

Hi

I was always interested in looking at alternate form of energy and solar always attracted me, as I feel that it was provided by the big bang theory for a reason and also it is one of most easily and widely available resource and no country can claim it for themselves. It will truly flatten the world.

I am now going to start writing more about solar energy and also look at developments as they occur. In my pursuit of knowledge for solar energy I found that resources are not easily available on the web for the same. My humble endeavor will be to provide the same. Hope it helps someone somewhere. I would definitely encourage readers to post comments and also point out any mistakes which might be listed on this blog.

Thanks again and keep reading.