A Review of Solar Cells and their Applications

A solar cell or a photovoltaic cell is an electronic-device which is used to convert the sun's energy into electrical energy. Sunlight falling on these solar or photovoltaic cells produces current and voltage which generate electric power. This process requires a semiconductor material for the absorption of sunlight which raises an electron from its higher energy state and movement of this higher energy electron from the semiconductor material of the solar cell into an external circuit. The electron then casts away its energy into the external circuit and again returns back to the solar cell material. A variety of semiconductor materials are used for solar energy conversion, also most of the solar energy conversion process employ semiconducting materials in form of a p-n junction. With the increase in utilization of renewable energy, such as solar energy, in this article we will study about the types of solar cells and their applications.