Amorphous silicon solar cells

[katona]

Hi.

I'm quite new to photovoltaic technology. I have bought some amorphous silicon solar cells, and now I don't really know how to wire them. I could hardly find any documentation about this problem on the web.

Could someone help me please? Maybe with some pictures? Videos?

Thank you.

Katona

[MarineLiner]

Welcome and thanks

Welcome onboard and thanks for joining.
We have several posts about making solar panel from solar cells.
I will come back with the links soon.

[poindexter]

let the sunshine in...

HI Guys.
I have had store bought panels for quite a while and now building my own.
ONe site suggested white plexi backing ( no thickness suggested) and clear front plexi ( no thickness suggested).. My nabour and I are both on the same page , he buys them, I like to build them.. the units he bought are glass.
If use, plexi, then they will discolor ( yellow) in time, so I assume glass would be the prefered method if nothing more than to keep things ridgid. I was thinking plexi or lexan backing and glass front ( shower doors or patio door glass) with pellets to remove moisture ( marine supply). only thought I have is that lexan is expensive but durable for backing, was thinking 1/8th inch for mounting then glass front to make it rigid and secure.. also, it was suggested that a spray be used on the glass ( I think in the inside) to cut any UV.
input on the comments above is greatly appreciated...
thanks.

[BuzzBuds]

HI Guys.
I have had store bought panels for quite a while and now building my own.
ONe site suggested white plexi backing ( no thickness suggested) and clear front plexi ( no thickness suggested).. My nabour and I are both on the same page , he buys them, I like to build them.. the units he bought are glass.
If use, plexi, then they will discolor ( yellow) in time, so I assume glass would be the prefered method if nothing more than to keep things ridgid. I was thinking plexi or lexan backing and glass front ( shower doors or patio door glass) with pellets to remove moisture ( marine supply). only thought I have is that lexan is expensive but durable for backing, was thinking 1/8th inch for mounting then glass front to make it rigid and secure.. also, it was suggested that a spray be used on the glass ( I think in the inside) to cut any UV.
input on the comments above is greatly appreciated...
thanks.

I am new to all this as well but its my understanding it cant be just any glass it is more expensive but tempered uv resitant glass or plexi will do the trick here for you.
the plexi I beleive is the most used between the both of them but make sure it is a uv resistant it wont discolor like normal plexi

[poindexter]

thickness

seems that most of the store bought good units are glass, If I use plexi ( UV). what thickness would work? a video showed what looks like a little less than 1/4 inch... which would cause a lot of flexing thus cracking the modules..
Any thoughts???

[BuzzBuds]

seems that most of the store bought good units are glass, If I use plexi ( UV). what thickness would work? a video showed what looks like a little less than 1/4 inch... which would cause a lot of flexing thus cracking the modules..
Any thoughts???

I think 1/4 inch is what they use I guess you could go thicker but I wouldnt go too thick

[poindexter]

thickness

Ok, will go with the clear 1/4 inch UV plexiglass and not lexan... and what do you suggest for the base? the video said white plexi...

[viralshah]

We have several posts about making solar panel from solar cells.
I will come back with the links soon.

[MarineLiner]

Use the Tags

Some of the related post can be found by clicking the Tags below.

[pepscae]

Amorphous Solar Panels are they the best option for shaded areas?

I am researching about a good PV solution for my house where I plan to place the panels on a flat roofs over my two sunrooms so that they will not be visible from the street. I believe
I also have some trees that occasionally may shade the panels. I will not cut them down just to gain few watts. the amorphous panels are the best solution. do you agree?
I read that the amorphous panels such as the ones sold by the now defunct Uni Solar have special diodes configuration that allows power to still be gained even if the panel is partially shaded.
In my case the panel has 136 Watt nominally I hope I can get half of that placing them in less then optimal areas.
By the way, is the orientation vs sun of amorphous panels as important as for mono poly types?

[inetdog]

I am researching about a good PV solution for my house where I plan to place the panels on a flat roofs over my two sunrooms so that they will not be visible from the street. I believe
I also have some trees that occasionally may shade the panels. I will not cut them down just to gain few watts. the amorphous panels are the best solution. do you agree?
I read that the amorphous panels such as the ones sold by the now defunct Uni Solar have special diodes configuration that allows power to still be gained even if the panel is partially shaded.
In my case the panel has 136 Watt nominally I hope I can get half of that placing them in less then optimal areas.
By the way, is the orientation vs sun of amorphous panels as important as for mono poly types?

All current panels include bypass diodes to allow partial power even when a string of panels is partially shaded.
Even though amorphous panels suffer less from shading, they start out much less efficient in the first place, so you are usually better off with a crystalline panel in terms of both power per area and cost per watt.

[PNjunction]

While the amorphous cells are more tolerant of shadowing (less chance of hot-spots etc), and can initially put out all the available current from that area that is not shaded, the shaded part is still in a reverse-biased condition, and that is not good for the long term health of the panel.

I can get away with this condition while camping with my amorphous panels that get frequently shaded, but I'm not likely to see the accumulative degradation over the life of the panel.

I'm not certain that I'd do this with a fixed installation of amorphous (assuming that was my only choice) where shadows are designed into the plan. Short term tolerance is one thing, but long-term degradation due to reverse bias leakage current is another. I'm not so sure that shadowed reverse-biased areas of a panel that has been that way for 3 months in the winter will be up to spec when the shadows change in the summer! The degree of degradation is not known to me, so I can't judge long term.

Purdue University put out an interesting study of shaded degradation for amorphous panels in Jan 2011:
Identification, Characterization, and Implications of Shadow Degradation in Thin Film Solar Cells

Note that I can only discern the gist of the paper - it is way over my head ..