Question

CASE STUDY OF REAL WORLD CHALLENGES Past decade has seen solar energy demonstrating remarkable growth as one of the significant source of global renewable energy. Since 2004, the solar energy industry has increased 53% fold in capacity. Thus, contributing to energy security by providing more diversity in the energy supply and reducing the dependency of fossil fuels which would reduce fuel import bills for many countries apart from the benefits of environmental protection Please analyse, evaluate, compare, justify and formulates the following in details: a) An overview landscape, trends of PV technology, challenges and potential globally and within the economic and technology constraints. b) The 3rd generation high efficiency solar cell with advanced concepts and new approach of breaking the 31% efficiency limits With this new design approach of high efficiency PVs, describe the opportunity of solar PV in the realisation of solar energy's access and affordability to ensure continuous growth of solar green energy as an affordable renewable energy source c)

Answer 1

Answer (a) : PV Technology (Photovoltaic Technology) is a revolution in the field of renewable energy generation. Sources of energy and their efficient use has been a hot topic across the globe. This has been more stressed on due to the ever-decreasing other sources of energy, and more so the fossil fuel. Therefore, the emergence of the PV technology has been a revolution in the energy efficiency and energy generation and utilization of the energy. In this, the direct sunlight is converted in o Direct electricity current through the Photovoltaic cells, which are arranged in arrays as modules. The direct current generated from these cells can be used in to any source or means, where we use current for functioning. Another component of this mechanism is an efficient power conversion equipment. An efficient conversion machine can help us generate more current from lesser sunlight available. Currently, the market of PV technology is hugely expanding and has a super bright future ahead of it. Many countries across the globe have stressed on the need to move away from the contemporary and traditional energy generation source as their availability is in serious threat, and their disappearance looms large. Many nations have brought out several programs or schemes to promote the use of direct sunlight to produce electricity. Sunlight being a natural gift, and being wasted otherwise, is the perfect source for the best use of energy generation. However, the energy efficiency of the cells involved in the plates, which convert the Sunlight in to direct current, is still evolving. Many firms are investing huge amounts of money to evolve new technology through which, more and more efficient convertible plates and cells can be created. The Government’s should ensure that such firms must be given more than enough support so that they can do their research without any pressure of market or limited investment. The Government should also look to invest in these companies so that, it can monitor their progress , thereby also keeping an eye on the quality parameters being followed by these firms.

Answer (b) : The evolving nature of the Photovoltaic cells has been very encouraging. In a span of few years, many firms have come up with new technology which could do more efficient conversion of sunlight to direct current and thereby bring more energy to the consumers. We now have the Third-Generation photovoltaic cells, the firms have an estimated aim to use as thinner film or cell coat as possible to generate as much high amount of Direct current as possible. Watt peak is considered the mostly used metric of calculation in the Photovoltaic industry. The firms aim to minimize the cell coats and use thinner film with slightly increase coat of areal, thereby resulting in the reduction of the per unit Watt in the electricity generation. In the case of the second-generation Photovoltaic cells, the concern was that they were using toxic materials for the creation of the film, which were ideally scarce in nature. With the Third-generation Photovoltaic cells, the firms plan to use the nontoxic materials in the production of films and coat cells. These non-toxic materials are also non-scarce in nature, thereby allowing us to create the cells in abundance. They also aim to create such cells and coats which are compatible to maximum types of photovoltaic machines. These Third generation PV cells would be more intensive towards time utilization , single cell being more and more efficient, the aim is to minimize the defects and increase the quality of the cells for their longer life span.

Answer (c) : The firms which are in the process of the creation of these Third-generation photovoltaic cells and plates, have been in research for many years now and once these [products are in the market, they should take over the market with a boom. The future of these Third-generation PV cells is very bright. However, the Governments should see that these firms are given enough support from their side to ensure the smooth transition of their research in to the production machinery and then finally to the market and the consumers. There should be provisions made to give tax rebates to these firms to encourage them to build the products with enhanced quality and dedication, Moreover, once these products are in the market, there should be proper marketing of these products to ensure that the benefits of these cells reach to every citizen in the country. The more these cells will be in action, the more we safeguard the nature, thereby increasing our life span on the mother earth.