Types Of Solar Cells

There are different types of solar cells that would allow you to convert sunlight into electricity. After all, that is how houses and building with solar panels work- the sunlight is captured and converted to electricity and this is how electricity is generated. Numerous countries are turning towards solar power because it is a renewable and limitless source of energy. Solar cells first absorb sunlight, separate the charges and then, separate the extraction of these carriers which are then sent to an external circuit to generate power and electricity. Though installation of various types of solar cells is expensive, it would really help reduce and costs in the future.

Different types of solar cells would help you generate electricity to different extenst. The first of these types of solar cells is the crystalline solar cells which are very efficient in converting sunlight to electricity. Though the purpose of various types of solar cells is to convert light to electricity, the extent to which they can do so depends upon the material that is used in the solar cells. Some of these may not be good for commercial purposes but would be better for domestic purposes and then there are those that are good for both. Each crystalline cell produces 0.5 and 0.6 Volts which is sufficient to charge a battery of 12 volts.

Another of the various types of solar cells are thin film solar cells which would reduce the amount of light absorbing material in the solar cell and this way processing costs of these types of solar cells would be reduced as well. These are also much lighter than other solar cells. However, this would have an impact upon the production of electricity because energy will not be produced as efficiently as compared to other types of solar cells.

Then there’s the multijunction photovoltaic cell. These types of solar cells are very efficient in converting solar energy to electricity and were initially used in satellites. They are quite expensive and it is currently being used on the Mars rover mission too because of the fact that these types of solar cells generate a good amount of electricity in certain machines.

Dye-sensitized solar cells are those types of solar cells that allow materials to be used in a manner that is more flexible when compared to other types of solar cells such as those used for bulk solar cells.

You would think that these types of cells would make electricity even more expensive but if you come to think of it they make things cheaper in the long run- energy that is needed is consumed and energy that is not can be sent back to the grid which reduces the overall consumption of electricity and as a result your bills would come down by a lot. Various companies are focusing upon the creation of solar cells that would efficiently be able convert energy and produce enough energy to generate buildings and homes both. This way dependence upon non-renewable sources of energy would be reduced too.