1. Introduction to Photovoltaics
Dennis Scanlin
Appalachian State University

2. Photovoltaic History
Edmund Becquerel - first recognized the effect

3. Early PV milestones 1839 – discovery of the photovoltaic effect;
1873 – Smith discovers the photoconductivity of selenium
1883 – Fritts develops first selenium cell (1% efficient)
1904 – Einstein published his paper on the photoelectric effect (along with a paper on his theory of relativity)
1921 – Albert Einstein wins the Nobel Prize for his theories (1904 paper) explaining the photoelectric effect
Albert Einstein

4. P-N Junction & 1st cells
Technology Developed at Bell Labs in 1940’s & 50’s
Patented 1st modern solar cell called a “Light sensitive device”

6. Vanguard I - first PV powered satellite
Launched in 1958; 4th artificial satellite
solar panel: 0.1W, 100 cm²
Still orbiting; longest orbiting artificial satellite
$1000/watt

7. Contemporary Applications: Direct Power Water Pumping or Air Moving

8. Direct Power

9. Contemporary Applications: Off Grid Battery Based Systems

10. Off Grid Battery Based Systems

11. Offgrid Battery Based System

13. Hybrid Systems

14. Grid Tied Battery Based Systems

15. Battery Charging Systems

17. Direct Grid Tie Batteryless Systems

19. Direct Grid Tie PV

20. Direct Grid Tie Inverters

21. Direct Grid Tied PV: Residential

22. Number of Residential vs Commercial Systems Installed

24. Direct Grid Tied Utility Scale Photovoltaic Systems

25. Annual US Installed Grid PV

26. Mounting Hardware

27. PV Production by Country

30. Types of PV Cells/Products
Single Crystalline
Polycrystalline
String Ribbon
Amorphous or Thin Film

31. Shipments of PV by Type

32. Best Research-Cell Efficiencies
Spectrolab 36
Multijunction Concentrators Three-junction (2-terminal, monolithic) Two-junction (2-terminal, monolithic)
Crystalline Si Cells Single crystal Multicrystalline Thin Si
Thin Film Technologies Cu(In,Ga)Se2 CdTe Amorphous Si:H (stabilized)
Emerging PV Organic cells
Spectrolab 32
Japan
Energy
NREL/
Spectrolab
NREL 28
NREL
UNSW 24
UNSW
Spire
UNSW
UNSW
UNSW
NREL
Cu(In,Ga)Se2
14x concentration
Spire
Stanford
ARCO
Georgia Tech
UNSW 20
Efficiency (%)
Sharp
NREL
Westing-
house
Georgia Tech
Varian
NREL
NREL 16
No. Carolina
State University
University So. Florida
NREL
NREL
AstroPower
NREL
Euro-CIS
Solarex
ARCO
Boeing 12
Kodak
Boeing
Boeing
United Solar
AMETEK
Masushita
United Solar 8
Kodak
Boeing
AstroPower
Monosolar
RCA
Photon
Energy
Solarex
Boeing
University California
Berkeley 4
University
of Maine
Princeton
RCA
RCA
RCA
University Konstanz
RCA
RCA
RCA
NREL
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000

33. Concentrating PV

37. PV Prices

39. Cost of Energy