EFFECT OF PANEL MATERIALS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF SOLAR CELLS

Abstract

Electrical energy has become part and parcel of our life as all the domestic modern appliances use electricity because of its cleanliness, availability and ease of control. Also, conservation of such energy is paramount not only on economic aspect but also to extend the life of resources for further use. Presently, most of the electricity is generated using power generating plants that use coal as fuel. In addition to produce energy, they do contaminate the environs by discharging flue gases chiefly carbon dioxide. The extent of carbon dioxide discharged into the air as an end result of actions of a specific individual, group or public is referred as carbon footprint and globally there is a call for reducing this carbon foot print to curtail its unfavorableimpacts on the society. Hence, though there are other resources like oil and gases are available for producing electrical energy, they do have the same effect. They are unsustainable. More than conserving the energy, it is highly needed to use renewable and sustainable energies to produce electricity. The cheap, clean and available renewable energy is solar energy. Photovoltaics (PV) is a guileless and smart method of hitching the solar energy. PV cells/solar cells are exclusive in that they reliably deliver electricity through the solar radiation hitting them. All the solar radiation falling on a PV cell or panel is not