Technology: Solar panels in 2024. What should we know to make a decision?
I think the first thing people think of when talking about a solar rooftop system is solar panels. I must say that solar panels are a technology that has been around for a long time. For this article, I will give a brief summary for you to understand. How do solar cell panels work? And what are the things that should be decided to be used?
What is Photovoltaic Effect?
Having said that, the cells in the solar panel are silicon crystals, which is an element that occurs naturally, such as sand, which is considered silicon. The process for making a solar panel is that we mix silicon with other elements. to create different layers.
The first layer will be Silicon mixed with Boron to create a P-Type layer.
The second layer will mix Silicon with Phosphorous to form an N-Type layer. This layer is very important because it will have electrons ready to jump out into the P-Type layer to create a magnetic field and electrical current. next direct current
The principle that causes electrons to jump from the N-Type layer to the P-Type layer is called the “Photovoltaic Effect“. It occurs when sunlight passing through the atmosphere turns into energy waves called Photons. Coming to the solar panel and will hit the N-Type layer, which will cause the electrons to jump to the P-Type layer, creating DC electricity and continuing to run to other solar panels.
How many types of solar panels are there?
The production of solar panels will be Silicon that mixes both semiconductor elements Boron และ Phosphorous It is melted with enormous heat to make it into a liquid. Before the liquid solidifies until it becomes a wafer, which we call Silicon Wafer.
When that process is finished. We will cut it to make cells, but in the past, the technology for production did not have cutting to make it into one seamless crystal. But it involves taking small pieces of Silicon Wafer crystals and mixing them together to make Cells. We will call that technology.“Poly Crystalline”The efficiency, if used now, will not work very well.
Later, the technology for producing Silicon Wafer started to improve. And cutting silicon sockets, also known as Ingot, can now be done without mixing scraps together. The advantage of this type of production is the seamlessness of the cells, which makes the efficiency of running and jumping of the Electron better, or collectively speaking, the Photovoltaic Effect will occur more completely, which we call this type of solar panel. that “Mono Crystalline”
Currently, the solar panels sold in the market, if they are updated in 2024, will be mainly Mono Crystalline.
And are there any other types of solar panels besides Mono-Poly?
Actually, there is, we call it Amorphous. This type of solar cell panel is produced unlike Poly Crystalline or Mono Crystalline, but it is a coating of a thin film layer on the cell panel. Which we call Thin Film.
Amorphous solar panels are a technology that has little efficiency in producing electricity from the panels. If you want to install the electrical power according to the target, you will need to use a large number of panels. This will cause the installation space to be wasted by default. But what is an advantage of amorphous solar panels is that the production of electricity from the solar panels can occur in areas with low light. Therefore, the technology for creating cells like this is used with electronic devices such as Calculators, wristwatches, etc.
Then Mono Crystalline is the best. All brands of panels are the same.
Having installed a lot of Solar Rooftop systems, one thing we understand about solar panels is that this type of material can be compared to a Smart phone.
Asked why the comparison was made like that? I must say that the solar cell panels have internal technology changes in order to reinforce differences in each camp or brand of manufacturer. And in addition, the solar panels are Discontinued or outdated. For older models whose technology is beginning to lag behind or whose production capacity is low and is no longer in demand in the market.
What are the outstanding technologies that complement Mono Crystalline? PERC
PERC
PERC Or fully called Passivated Emitter Rear Contact, is that the manufacturer will add a layer below after the P-Type and N-Type layers. The reason is because Normally, when a solar cell panel jumps electrons from the N-Type layer to the P-Type layer, it is not always that the reaction occurs completely.
Sometimes the electrons don’t jump far enough to reach the P-Type layer, or even sometimes they jump all the way back beneath the cell layer and are lost without generating an electrical current. In any way. That is a waste and causes performance to drop for no real reason.
Therefore, PERC has brought in a layer that reflects the electrons that jump down to the back of the cell. In order to return to the P-Type layer and create DC electricity again.
The efficiency of PERC solar panels has an overall production efficiency of 23%, compared to Mono Crystalline solar panels that are normally around 20%, which is considered to be a considerable increase. quite
Mono PERC panels that are seen in the market a lot are 400W-550W panels. If you follow the famous brands, they are like Longi HIMO5, Jinko Tiger Pro, Trina Tallmax, JA Deep Blue 3.0 It’s like this.
HPBC
If anyone observes a solar cell panel normally, they will see a ribbon or busbar which acts as a path for the flow of electricity in the solar cell panel. All of which we will call “Front Contact”
The word Front means that it is the topmost layer. This means that when sunlight enters the solar panel, it must pass through the Front Contact layer before reaching the cell. The disadvantage is that there will be a slight shadow before reaching the P-N Type layer.
Longi Solar It is the first company to start doing R&D in this matter and releasing a technology called Hybrid Passivated Back Contact Which is taking all of the Front Contact parts to be behind the entire cell layer.
ในความคิดผมจากที่ติดตั้งมาต้องยอมรับจริงๆครับว่า HPBC ของ Longi HIMO6 นั้นเป็นแผงโซลาร์เซลล์ที่สวยจริงๆ และเทียบกับประสิทธิภาพนั้นสามารถอัพมาได้ถึงประมาณ 25% ซึ่งเปรียบเทียบกับแบบ PERC ปกติก็จะสูงขึ้นกว่าเดิมประมาณ 2% ครับ
Tilling Ribbon
For this one, we have crossed over to Jinko Solar, which has technology that has done R&D in producing solar panels. As for tilling, it means that each cell in the solar panel is slightly separated from each other. In order not to create gaps between cells, this technology will create fewer connections between cells. and increase the area of cells in the solar panel Makes the electricity production process more efficient.
and a ribbon that is like a busbar that carries electricity in each cell. Jinko’s side has changed its shape from the normal flat type. Make it round. The advantage is that it causes the reflection of light to enter the cell layer more easily.
But then comes the ultimate technology of this year, N-Type TOPCON!
Going back to what I said, the generation of electric current from solar panels is the jumping of electrons from the N-Type layer to the P-Type until a magnetic field is created and an electric current is released from the cell.
Previously, every model of solar cell panel that we mentioned were all P-Type models. The P-Type layer is somewhat thicker than the N-Type layer, so we call it according to the thickness of most of them. The cell layer inside the solar panel is called P-Type.
And the development happened and we call this technology TOPCON or Tunnel Oxide Passivated Contact. The method is Inside the cell layer, a thin film layer of Tunnel Oxide is coated on the PERC cell part to prevent it from occurring. Recombination or the rebounding and recombination of electrons, which would be wasted in creating a reaction that creates electrical current from the cell And it also increases efficiency in itself.
and besides As for the N-Type layer, it will return to be thicker than the P-Type layer, causing the interior of the N-Type layer that is prepared to receive sunlight to have more space and cause the flow of electrons from the N-Type layer. It happens more easily.
The efficiency of N-Type solar panels is as high as 25.1%, which if compared to P-Type HPBC, will increase by another 2-3%.
In N-Type solar panels, some brands also use a technology called HJT or Hetero junction in conjunction with N-Type TOPCON, which is to use an Amorphous Layer Thin Film layer to coat the top and bottom of the Mono Crystalline layer. Which is a combination of the 2 advantages of Amorphous and Mono Crystalline together, giving the solar panel additional advantages as follows:
- Can receive energy from sunlight even though there is not much light required. The cells in the solar panel can also produce electricity. which is the advantage of Amorphous
- Production capacity will remain good in high heat conditions.
- The solar panel will be bifacial because it has an amorphous coating on both the top and bottom.
We conclude that you should choose N-Type solar panels.
From the article we told you about. I think readers will already have an idea of what type of solar cell panel they should choose to install at their residence. Which we recommend that it should be the newest technology, which is N-Type.
As for whether it will be bifacial or not, in the next article we will talk about this, which cases should be suitable for installing and choosing bifacial solar panels.
But if it’s just N-Type, it’s considered the best right now in 2024.
