Advantages of Solar Cell | Disadvantages of Solar Cell
This page covers advantages and disadvantages of Solar Cell and working. It mentions advantages of solar cell and disadvantages of Solar Cell.
What are solar cells ?
The popular renewable energy sources include wind turbine, fuel cell and solar cell. The solar cell converts sun light into electricity. Sunlight consists of photons which can be converted into electric energy with the help of photo-voltaic effect.
The electricity produced by solar cell depends on various parameters such as light wavelength, light intensity, light incident angle, surface area of solar cell, temperature of solar cells and type of solar cell. Solar cells are made of Ni-Cd, Se or PbS. Common types of solar cells are Perovskite Solar Cell, Organic, Quantum Dot solar cell etc.
Let us understand solar cell working principle.
• Solar cell is made of P-type and N-type materials.
Sunlight which is made of photons are particles which contain energy.
• When light falls on the solar cell.
These photons are absorbed by and consecutively pass through the material of the solar cell.
• The photons will excite the electrons found in N-type material of photovoltaic cell.
In other words, light breaks silicon bonds and creates "free" electrons and
holes.
• This results into production of current (i.e. movement of holes).
This movement of electrons or flow of current is known as "electricity".
• Refer Solar cell as renewable energy resource >> for more information.
The solar cell efficiency can be calculated as per above formula or equation.
Benefits or Advantages of Solar Cell
Following are the benefits or advantages of Solar Cell:
➨A solar plant is basically a re-newable power source. Hence it is not harmful to the environment.
➨It is very easy to operate compare to other power sources of re-newable type.
➨It does not produce any noise as it does not have any moving parts.
➨It does not generate emissions or radiations.
➨It does not require fuels or water to produce electricity.
➨Solar cells have longer life, about 30 years.
➨PV cells operate in cloudy weather conditions also.
➨It is very cost effective.
➨It needs less capital investment.
➨It is easy to maintain and it requires lower maintenance.
➨Solar cells based plant is based on modular architecture and hence
it can be used as small size power source as well as large size power source.
Drawbacks or Disadvantages of Solar Cell
Following are the drawbacks or disadvantages of Solar Cell:
➨It can not be used in absence of the light from any source.
➨It incurs very high initial cost for installation.
➨During cloudy weather, less power is being generated.
➨Very large geographical area is needed in order to deploy solar panels or cells.
➨Off grid applications require energy storage.
➨Photo-Voltaic solar cells generate direct current (DC).
It requires DC appliances or inverters (to convert DC to AC) for use with solar cells based
plants.
To understand Advantages and Disadvantages of solar cell, one has to also understand Pros and Cons of Solar Energy>>, Perovskite Solar Cell>> and Organic Solar Cell>>.
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