High efficiency batteries. Application in everyday life. Installation of solar modules

The solar panel is considered to be the source electrical energy, which works directly from the light flux. If speak about design, any solar panel represents a certain set of photocells interconnected, placed in a protective housing and covered with a front glass panel.

What is a photocell

A photocell is a semiconductor element that combines two types of conductivity, distinguished by a lack or excess of electrons:

n—conductivity;
p is conductivity.

It consists of two semiconductors in which the electrons of the source material absorb energy received from the solar stream, which gives them additional momentum. Leaving its orbit, the directed flow of electrons generates a constant photocurrent, which is used for practical purposes.

Application in everyday life

Scope of application similar devices is very wide and covers various industries, among which the following areas can be noted:

Microelectronics (watches, calculators).
Electronics used in everyday life ( external batteries for smartphones, tablets, laptops).
Providing electricity to both detached buildings and remote areas.
Use in mobile communications equipment and various complexes.
Automotive industry (electric vehicles).
Space industry (space stations).

Benefits of use

Among others alternative sources solar panels have a range of energy undeniable advantages, namely:

They are a non-volatile source of energy and do not require complex maintenance or replacement of aggregate units or connections. Maximum care involves cleaning the glass coating from emerging contaminants.
They operate independently, do not require switching on and off, and are always in working order. They are also noiseless and completely environmentally friendly.
Short payback period.
The service life is equal to 25 years, while the power of the elements does not decrease during operation. According to manufacturers, the reduction in output power should be no more than 5%.
When using them, it is possible to configure the final installation depending on the required power and voltage, which is problematic to do with other energy sources.

Types of devices used

As already mentioned, they all contain photocells, which can be represented by the following semiconductors:

Silicon solar panels

Currently, monocrystalline, polycrystalline and amorphous silicon are used for the production of photocells.

Made from monocrystalline silicon. As the name suggests, the main material in these devices is purified silicon. By appearance they are made in the form of a honeycomb connected into a single structure. Structurally purified monocrystalline silicon is the thinnest wafers (up to 300 microns) connected by an electrode grid. Their main advantage is their high efficiency, which can be up to 20%.
Polycrystalline elements. Such types are much cheaper than the previous version due to simpler manufacturing technology (cooling the silicon substance). Note that the formation of polycrystals inside leads to the fact that the stability of operation becomes significantly lower, and the final efficiency indicators do not exceed 18%.
Solar panels made of amorphous silicon. They can be classified as either film or silicon, since the main semiconductor material in them is silane (or hydrogen silicon). A thin film of silane is applied to a specially prepared substrate, which forms a photocell. Despite the fact that the efficiency is only about 5%, this type has found wide application. Photocells have good light absorption, due to which, despite their low efficiency, they are able to work in the absence of direct sun and in cloudy weather. In this regard, a combination of monocrystalline (or polycrystalline) cells with amorphous ones is used, since prefabricated sections are able to work in any weather conditions.

Film solar panels

There are two types:

Based on cadmium telluride. They have low efficiency (up to 10%) and a toxic substance in their composition, but despite this, their low cost determines their popularity. Based on copper-indium selenide. The main materials used to create cells are copper, selenium and indium. They are also quite cheap, but have an efficiency of about 20%.
Polymer. At the moment they are more popular due to their cheapness and availability. Polyphenylene or copper phthalocyanine are used as semiconductors. The efficiency is only 5%, however, due to their availability, ease of installation and installation, as well as environmental safety, they are used not only for industrial but also for domestic purposes.

Efficiency

At the very beginning, even at the stage of the appearance of solar panels on the market, the efficiency was quite low, but today their performance has increased by quite high level. Now for monocrystalline silicon batteries it reaches 24%, for polycrystalline ones – 20%, thin-film silicon – 15%, and for thin-film ones based on gallium arsenide – 24%. For multilayer solar panels, the efficiency reaches 30%.

If we turn to the manufacturers of such devices, the best solar batteries with high efficiency are represented by the following companies:

Panels created by the Soitec & Fraunhofer Institute are today leaders in terms of efficiency of use. The efficiency reaches an incredible 46%, however, due to the colossal cost, they are used only in the scientific and space field.
Sharp is an undisputed leader with 55 years of experience. They produce solar panels for almost all industries, from calculators to space stations. Now the efficiency of the products they produce is solar panels reaches 19.8%. In its developments, the company managed to achieve a productivity of 44.4%, but these technologies are now extremely expensive and are not offered on the market.
In third place is the Spanish Institute IES (Spanish solar research institute). They managed to achieve an efficiency of 32.6%.

However, back to earth, the numbers above are from the field of high technology, which is not yet available for use for commercial or residential properties. When choosing a solar system for your home, the most efficient solar panels that you can find on the market are unlikely to exceed an efficiency of 20%. For our part, we can recommend that you pay attention to such manufacturers as Amonix, Sun Power, SunTech Power, Q-Cells, Sanyo and First Solar.

How to correctly calculate the number of solar panels

In order to determine the number of batteries to install in your home, you need to take into account the following factors:

Calculate the required amount of electricity in the house.
Depending on the location (region), clarify the level of solar radiation throughout the year. Typically, the data is available from local weather services.
Calculate power per day. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the losses for charging the battery (no more than 20%) - W.
Taking into account summer and winter coefficients, obtain the power (output) of one section per day N, with the summer correction factor being 0.5 and the winter correction factor being 0.7.
Dividing W by N, we get the required number of batteries required to meet the electricity demand.

When calculating, we can estimate that for the regions middle zone In Russia, the number of panels required to provide the required electricity in winter is several times greater than in summer.

At the same time, production is affected not only by the power of an individual section, but also by its angle of inclination, the presence or absence of rotary drives and concentrating devices. In any case, if there is insufficient power generation, the number of sections can be increased, which will help solve the problem.

Increasing the efficiency of solar panels

Taking into account the fact that their efficiency is quite low, manufacturers, as well as users, are faced with the acute problem of increasing it. The efficiency of solar panels depends on many factors, therefore, to increase efficiency and productivity, you should adhere to the following points:

Correct choice of material. Unlike polycrystalline models, indium-gallium or cadmium-tellurium cells can significantly increase productivity.
Correct positioning of the section surface at right angles to the light flux, which is achieved by installing special drives and sensors that respond to the direction of light.
As with any other device, overheating is extremely dangerous, therefore, along with the installation of the panels, it is necessary to provide a system for their ventilation and cooling.
Avoid shadows from nearby tall objects, as this can reduce the performance of the installation several times.
Operating conditions, correct and timely maintenance of all components included in the control panels (drives, controllers, inverters, batteries, etc.).

Of course, installing solar panels will not completely solve the problem of autonomous power supply required quantity electricity, but will help increase its production to power at least some electrical appliances.

The record holder for efficiency among solar batteries available on the market today are solar batteries based on multilayer photocells, developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Germany. Since 2005, their commercial implementation has been carried out by Soitec.

The size of the photocells themselves does not exceed 4 millimeters, and the focusing sunlight they are achieved by using auxiliary concentrating lenses, thanks to which saturated sunlight is converted into electricity with an efficiency reaching 47%.

The battery contains four p-n junctions so that four different parts of the photocell can effectively receive and convert radiation of a specific wavelength, from sunlight, concentrated 297.3 times, in the wavelength range from infrared to ultraviolet.

Researchers led by Frank Dimiroth initially set themselves the task of growing a multilayer crystal, and a solution was found - they spliced growth substrates, and the result was a crystal with different semiconductor layers, with four photovoltaic subcells.

Multilayer photocells have long been used on spacecraft, but now solar stations based on them have been launched in 18 countries. This is becoming possible thanks to improved and cheaper technology. As a result, the number of countries equipped with new solar stations will increase, and there is a tendency for competition in the market for industrial solar panels.

In second place are solar batteries based on Sharp three-layer photocells, the efficiency of which reached 44.4%. Indium gallium phosphide is the first layer of the solar cell, gallium arsenide is the second, and indium gallium arsenide is the third layer. The three layers are separated by a dielectric, which serves to achieve a tunnel effect.

The concentration of light on the photocell is achieved thanks to a Fresnel lens, like the German developers - the light of the sun is concentrated 302 times and converted by a three-layer semiconductor photocell.

Scientific research into the development of this technology has been continuously conducted by Sharp since 2003 with the support of NEDO, a Japanese public administration organization promoting scientific research and development, as well as the dissemination of industrial, energy and environmental technologies. By 2013, Sharp had achieved a record of 44.4%.

Two years before Sharp, in 2011, the American company Solar Junction had already released similar batteries, but with an efficiency of 43.5%, the elements of which were 5 by 5 mm in size, and focusing was also carried out by lenses, concentrating the light of the sun 400 times. The solar cells were three-junction germanium-based cells, and the team even planned to create five- and six-junction solar cells to better capture the spectrum. Research is ongoing by the company to this day.

Thus, solar panels made in combination with concentrators, which, as we see, are produced in Europe, Asia, and America, have the highest record efficiency. But these batteries are mainly manufactured for the construction of large-scale ground-based solar power plants and for efficient power supply to spacecraft.

Recently, a record has been set for conventional consumer solar panels that are affordable for most people who want to install them, for example, on the roof of a house.

In mid-autumn 2015, Elon Musk's company SolarCity introduced the most efficient consumer solar panels, the efficiency of which exceeds 22%.

This indicator was confirmed by measurements carried out by the Renewable Energy Test Center laboratory. The Buffalo plant already sets a daily production target of 9 to 10 thousand solar panels, the exact characteristics of which have not yet been reported. The company already plans to supply at least 200,000 homes annually with its batteries.

The point is that optimized technological process allowed the company to significantly reduce the cost of production, while increasing the efficiency by 2 times compared to widespread consumer silicon solar panels. Musk is confident that his solar panels will be the most popular among homeowners in the near future.

Date added: 04/30/2015

Nowadays, renewable energy, especially where solar energy is used, is developing very intensively. In this regard, it continues active search methods and devices, increasing the productivity of existing systems that allow the most efficient conversion of solar energy into electricity. Here two directions can be distinguished - direct conversion of solar radiation into electricity, and multiple transformation solar energy- into heat, then into mechanical work, and then into electricity. So far, better results have been achieved in the second direction - industrial solar plants with concentrators, turbines or Stirling engines show excellent productivity in converting solar energy. Thus, at a solar station operating in New Mexico with solar concentrators and Stirling engines, an output efficiency of 31.25% was obtained, taking into account energy consumption for the orientation system, etc.

But such solar installations are extremely complex and expensive, are effective in conditions of very high solar insolation, and have not yet received sufficient development in the world. Therefore, direct converters of solar radiation - solar panels , occupy a leading position in the world of solar energy in terms of installations and range of applications. The productivity of serial industrial solar panels today, depending on the technology, ranges from 7 to 20%. Technologies do not stand still, they are developing and improving, new cells are already being developed and tested, at least twice as productive as the existing ones. Let's try to briefly consider the main directions of development of photovoltaic panels, technologies and their productivity.

The vast majority of solar converter cells of modern serial photomodules are made of monocrystalline (C-Si) or polycrystalline (MS-Si) silicon. Today, such silicon photovoltaic modules occupy about 90% of the photovoltaic converter market, of which approximately 2/3 is polycrystalline silicon and 1/3 is monocrystalline. Next come solar modules, the photocells of which are made using thin-film technology - the method of deposition, or sputtering of photosensitive substances onto various substrates. A significant advantage of modules made from these elements is their lower production cost, because they require approximately 100 times less material compared to silicon wafers. And so far, the least represented are multijunction solar cells from the so-called tandem, or multijunction cells.

Market shares of photovoltaic panels of various technologies:

Silicon crystalline photomodules.

The efficiency of silicon module cells today is about 15 - 20% (polycrystals - single crystals). This figure as a whole may soon be increased by several percent. For example, SunTech Power, one of the world's largest manufacturers of crystalline silicon modules, has announced its intention to launch photovoltaic modules with an efficiency of 22% over the next couple of years. Existing laboratory samples of monocrystalline cells show a productivity of 25%, polycrystalline - 20.5%. The theoretical maximum efficiency of silicon unijunction (p-n) elements is 33.7%. While it has not been achieved, the main task of manufacturers, in addition to increasing the efficiency of cells, is to improve production technology and reduce the cost of photomodules.

Separately positioned are photo modules from Sanyo, produced using HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer) technology using several layers of silicon, similar to tandem multilayer cells. The efficiency of such elements made of single-crystalline C-Si and several layers of nanocrystalline nc-Si is 23%. This is the highest today efficiency indicator cells of serial crystalline modules, a kind of nano solar batteries.

Thin film solar cells efficiency.

This name refers to several different technologies, the performance of which will be briefly discussed. Currently, there are three main types of inorganic film solar cells- silicon films based on amorphous silicon (a-Si), films based on cadmium telluride (CdTe) and films of copper indium gallium selenide (CuInGaSe2, or CIGS). The efficiency of modern thin-film solar cells based on amorphous silicon is about 10%, photomodules based on cadmium telluride - 10-11% (First Solar company), based on copper-indium-gallium selenide - 12-13% (Japanese solar modules SOLAR FRONTIER). Efficiency indicators of pre-series cells: CdTe have an efficiency of 15.7% (MiaSole modules), and CIGS cells have an efficiency of 18.7% (EMPA). The efficiency of individual thin-film solar cells is much higher, for example, data on the performance of laboratory samples of amorphous silicon cells is 12.2% (United Solar), CdTe cells - 17.3% (First Solar), CIGS cells - 20.5% ( ZSW). So far, solar converters based on thin films of amorphous silicon lead in production volumes among other thin-film technologies - the global market volume of thin-film Si cells is about 80%, solar cells based on cadmium telluride are about 18% of the market, and copper-indium-gallium selenide is 2% market. This is due, first of all, to the cost and availability of raw materials, as well as higher stability of characteristics than in multilayer structures. After all, silicon is one of the most common elements in the earth’s crust, while indium (CIGS elements) and tellurium (CdTe elements) are scattered and mined in small quantities. In addition, cadmium (CdTe cells) is toxic, although all manufacturers of such solar modules guarantee complete recycling of their products. Also, the degradation process in the elements of thin-film modules proceeds faster than crystalline cells. Further development The development of photoelectric converters based on inorganic thin films is associated with the improvement of production technology and stabilization of their parameters.

Thin-film solar cells also include organic/polymer thin-film photosensitive elements and sensitized dyes. In this direction, the commercial use of solar cells is still limited, everything is at the laboratory stage, as well as in improving the technology of the future serial production. A number of sources have announced that the efficiency of elements based on organic converters has reached more than 10%: the German company Heliatek - 10.7%, the University of California UCLA - 10.6%. A group of scientists from a laboratory at EPFL obtained an efficiency of 12.3% for cells made from sensitized dyes. In general, the direction of organic thin-film elements, as well as photosensitive dyes, is considered one of the most promising. Statements are regularly made about achieving another efficiency record, technology going beyond the walls of laboratories, and soon covering all available surfaces with highly efficient and cheap solar converters - companies Konarka, Dyesol, Solarmer Energy. Work is focused on increasing the stability of characteristics and reducing the cost of technology.

Multijunction (multilayer, tandem) solar panels characteristics.

Cells of such elements contain layers of various materials, forming several p-n junctions. An ideal solar cell would, in theory, have hundreds of different layers (pn junctions), each tuned to a small range of wavelengths of light across the entire spectrum, from ultraviolet to infrared. Each transition absorbs solar radiation at a specific wavelength, thus covering the entire spectrum. The main materials for such elements are gallium compounds (Ga) - indium gallium phosphide, gallium arsenide, etc.

One of the private solutions for converting the entire solar spectrum is the use of prisms that decompose sunlight into spectra, concentrating on single-junction elements with different ranges of radiation conversion. Despite the fact that research in the field of multijunction solar cells has been going on for two decades, and photomodules from such cells operate successfully in space (solar batteries of the Mir station, Mars Exploration Rover, etc.), their practical earthly use has begun relatively recently. First commercial products on such elements entered the market several years ago and showed excellent result, and research in this direction constantly attracts attention. The fact is that the theoretical efficiency of two-layer cells can be 42% efficiency, three-layer cells 49%, and cells with an infinite number of layers - 68% of unfocused sunlight. The productivity limit of cells with an infinite number of layers is 86.8% when applying concentrated solar radiation. Today, practical efficiency results for multijunction cells are on the order of 30% in unfocused sunlight. This is not enough to offset the cost of producing such cells - the cost of a multijunction cell is approximately 100 times higher than that of a silicon cell of similar area, so multijunction cell module designs use concentrators to focus light 500 to 1000 times. A concentrator in the form of a Fresnel lens and a parabolic mirror collects sunlight from an area 1000 times larger than the cell area. The total cost of photomodules made from multijunction cells using concentrators (CPV) is significantly reduced in price due to inexpensive lenses and substrates, compensating for the high cost of production of the cell itself. At the same time, cell productivity increases up to 40%.

Solar batteries characteristics. For example, the efficiency of SolFocus cells measuring 5.5 mm x 5.5 mm is 40% when using concentrators; and the average cell sizes in CPV systems range from 5.5 mm x 5.5 mm to 1 cm x 1 cm. What does it have to do with the production of 1 cm? cells require 1/1000th of the raw material compared to a cell of similar productivity made from crystalline silicon. In order for multi-junction cells to operate with maximum efficiency, a constant high intensity of solar radiation is required; for this, two-axis orientation systems of CPV systems are used. The locations for deploying solar farms based on modules from multi-junction cells with concentrators are regions with high solar insolation.

The maximum efficiency of multijunction cells, obtained in laboratory conditions using concentrators, is currently 43.5% (Solar Junction), and is predicted to increase in the next couple of years to 50%.

As you can see, today there are solar cells with high productivity, manufactured according to various technologies, and the main task of manufacturers is to reduce the cost of the final product, adapt laboratory research for mass production. Despite the low consumption of raw materials in thin-film solar cells, the cost of some components in different types is quite high, just as the production technologies themselves are energy-intensive. The long-term stability of the parameters remains questionable. Multijunction solar cells are still very expensive, for maximum efficient work which also require an increased concentration of solar radiation. Therefore, crystalline silicon elements will in the near future hold a leading position in the photovoltaic converter market, decreasing in price. They will only be replaced by efficient and cheap thin-film modules, possibly made from polymer semiconductors or photosensitive dyes. But forecasting the development of this or that technology is not a rewarding task. Wait and see.

IN Lately Solar energy is developing at such a rapid pace

Recently, solar energy has been developing at such a rapid pace that in 10 years, the share of solar electricity in global annual electricity generation has increased from 0.02% in 2006 to almost one percent in 2016.

Dam Solar Park is the largest solar power plant in the world. Power 850 megawatts.

The main material for solar power plants is silicon, the reserves of which on Earth are practically inexhaustible. One problem is that the efficiency of silicon solar cells leaves much to be desired. The most efficient solar panels have an efficiency of no more than 23%. A average efficiency ranges from 16% to 18%. Therefore, researchers around the world involved in the field of solar photovoltaics are working to free solar photoconverters from the image of a supplier of expensive electricity.

A real struggle has unfolded to create a solar supercell. The main criteria are high efficiency and low cost. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the USA even issues a periodic newsletter reflecting intermediate results this fight. And each episode shows the winners and losers, the outsiders and the upstarts who accidentally got involved in this race.

Leader: solar multilayer cell

These helium converters resemble a sandwich of different materials, including perovskite, silicon and thin films. In this case, each layer absorbs light only of a certain wavelength. As a result, these multilayer helium cells, with an equal working surface area, produce significantly more energy than others.

The record-breaking efficiency of multilayer photoconverters was achieved at the end of 2014 by a joint German-French research team led by Dr. Frank Dimroth at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems. An efficiency of 46% was achieved. This fantastic efficiency value was confirmed by an independent study at NMIJ/AIST - the largest metrology center in Japan.

Multilayer solar cell. Efficiency – 46%

These cells are made up of four layers and a lens that concentrates sunlight onto them. The disadvantages include the presence of germanium in the structure of the substrate, which slightly increases the cost of the solar module. But all the shortcomings of multilayer cells can ultimately be eliminated, and researchers are confident that in the very near future their development will leave the walls of laboratories and enter the big world.

Rookie of the Year - Perovskite

Quite unexpectedly, a newcomer intervened in the race of leaders - perovskite. Perovskite is the general name for all materials that have a certain cubic crystal structure. Although perovskites have been known for a long time, research into solar cells made from these materials only began between 2006 and 2008. Initial results were disappointing: the efficiency of perovskite photoconverters did not exceed 2%. At the same time, calculations showed that this figure could be an order of magnitude higher. Indeed, after a series of successful experiments, Korean researchers in March 2016 received a confirmed effectiveness of 22%, which in itself became a sensation.

Perovskite solar cell

The advantage of perovskite cells is that they are more convenient to work with and easier to produce than similar silicon cells. With mass production of perovskite photoconverters, the price of one watt of electricity could reach $0.10. But experts believe that as long as perovskite helium cells reach maximum efficiency and begin to be produced in industrial quantities, the cost of a “silicon” watt of electricity can be significantly reduced and reach the same level of $0.10.

Experimental: quantum dots and organic solar cells

This type of solar photoconverter is still at an early stage of development and cannot yet be considered as a serious competitor to existing helium cells. However, the developer, the University of Toronto, claims that according to theoretical calculations, the efficiency of solar cells based on nanoparticles - quantum dots - will be above 40%. The essence of the invention of Canadian scientists is that nanoparticles - quantum dots - can absorb light in different spectral ranges. By changing the size of these quantum dots, it will be possible to select the optimal operating range of the photoconverter.

Solar cell based on quantum dots

And considering that this nanolayer can be applied by spraying onto any, including transparent, base, then practical application There are promising prospects for this discovery. And although today in laboratories when working with quantum dots an efficiency indicator of only 11.5% has been achieved; no one doubts the prospects of this direction. And the work continues.

Solar Window – new solar cells with 50% efficiency

The Solar Window company from Maryland (USA) has introduced a revolutionary “solar glass” technology that radically changes traditional ideas about solar panels.

Previously, there were reports about transparent helium technologies, as well as that this company promises to significantly increase the efficiency of solar modules. And, as shown latest events, these were not just promises, but 50% efficiency - no longer just theoretical delights of the company's researchers. While other manufacturers are just entering the market with more modest results, Solar Window has already presented its truly revolutionary high-tech developments in the field of helium photovoltaics.

These developments pave the way for the production of transparent solar cells, which have significantly higher efficiency compared to traditional ones. But this is not the only advantage of the new solar modules from Maryland. New helium cells can be easily attached to any transparent surfaces (for example, windows), can work in the shade or when artificial lighting. Due to their low cost, investments in equipping a building with such modules can pay for themselves within a year. By comparison, the payback period for traditional solar panels ranges from five to ten years, which is a huge difference.

Solar cells from the Solar Window company

The Solar Window company announced some details of the new technology for producing solar panels with such high efficiency. Of course, the main know how was left out of the equation. All helium cells are made primarily of organic material. The layers of elements consist of transparent conductors, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen. According to the company, the production of these solar modules is so harmless that it has 12 times less impact on the environment. environment than the production of traditional helium modules. Over the next 28 months, the first transparent solar panels will be installed in some buildings, schools, offices and skyscrapers.

If we talk about the prospects for the development of helium photovoltaics, it is very likely that traditional silicon solar cells can become a thing of the past, giving way to highly efficient, lightweight, multifunctional elements that open up the broadest horizons for helium energy. published

Much confusion today exists around the concept of solar system efficiency, which is important criterion their cost. The concept of solar panel efficiency refers to the percentage of sunlight falling on a panel that is converted into electricity for further use. Different materials for solar panels create different efficiencies, even the same manufacturing companies have different conversion efficiencies. Increasing efficiency is the best way to reduce solar energy costs.

The efficiency of a solar cell depends on the cleanliness of the plates that are used as raw materials in manufacturing. In addition, it is very important whether the panel is monocrystalline or polycrystalline. Most large companies concentrate their efforts on increasing efficiency to reduce costs in merciless use solar energy.

Let's look at the general range of solar cell efficiencies based on different cell types and different technologies.

There are the following - polycrystalline or monocrystalline silicon. Multi-solar cells have lower efficiency than batteries made from monocrystalline cells.

Solar cell efficiency can vary from 12% to 20% for conventional monocrystalline silicon. In usually installed ones, the calculated efficiency is 15% and depends on the type of silicon itself. Some of the world's manufacturers are constantly improving efficiency in order to reduce their costs and stay ahead of their rivals in this competitive industry. Others maximize the efficiency of crystalline solar cells using large scale production.

Polycrystalline solar cells have a lower cost than monocrystalline ones and have an efficiency in the range of 14-17%.

Thin-film technology, in contrast to carbon-silicon materials, has a number of advantages.

Amorphous silicon technologies C-Si have the lowest average coefficient efficiency, but they are the cheapest.

Copper-indium-gallium-sulfide (CIGS) and cadmium-tellurium (Cd-Te) have the greatest potential for increasing efficiency. Many manufacturers are pushing ahead with the development of this technology and are offering some of the highest efficiency rates for their models, increasing it by 19%. They achieved this value using several methods, including the use of reflective coatings that can capture more light from the corner.

If we justify the dependence not on the material, but on overall dimensions, then the higher the efficiency, the smaller the required working surface area of the batteries.

Although average percentage may seem a little low, it is possible to easily change the equipment, precisely during installation, with sufficient power to cover energy needs.

Factors affecting the efficiency of solar arrays include:

Mounting Surface Orientation
The roof should ideally face south, but the quality of the design can often compensate for other directions.

Tilt angle
The elevation and slope of the surface can affect the number of hours of sunlight received on an average day throughout the year. Large commercial systems have solar tracking systems that automatically change the angle of the sun's beam throughout the day. Typically not used for residential installations.

Temperature
Most panels become hot during use. Thus, they usually need to be installed slightly above roof level to ensure sufficient cooling air flow.

Shadow
In principle, shadow is the enemy of solar energy. If you choose an unsuccessful design during installation, even a small amount of shadows on one panel can shut down energy production on all other elements. Before a system is designed, a detailed shading analysis of the mounting surface is carried out to identify possible patterns of shade and sunlight throughout the year. Another detailed analysis is then carried out to test the conclusions reached.

Conventional solar panels with high efficiency solar systems industrial scale installed on piles 80cm above the ground, located in the direction from east to west, along the movement of the sun, at an angle of 25 degrees.