Silicon

Silicon is still the most popular material for the manufacture of most solar cells for commercial applications because it is abundant in nature. To be useful in solar cells must be refined to 99.9999% purity.

The molecular structure of a single silicon solar cell is uniform, making it ideal for efficient electron transfer. To make an effective photovoltaic cell, add “impurities” (doped) to become n-type or p-type. A second way is much cheaper as crystalline silicon, which consists of several smaller crystals known as “seeds,” introducing “boundary between binders to solid. Are these barriers impeding the flow or passage of electrons and encourage them to recombine with the “gaps”. There is a compromise between cost and power reduction. To create the different semiconductor layers, silicon impurities to be introduced, either with an element that has one electron too much (excess) or default (missing). Putting the layers `n ‘and` p’ is created the joint that causes the material to generate electricity when faced with a source of light.

Three technologies are available, all highly reliable. Two of these technologies require silicon crystal is mono-crystalline or polycrystalline. The third technology uses silicon thin-film “amorphous” doped.

The “monkey” becomes a single crystal extracted from a bath of molten silicon. This crystal is sliced in a configuration near a square called pseudo-square. Poly or Multi obtained by melting silicon ceramic molds like iron, it cools slowly for many hours in order to bind impurities to rise to the surface, cutting and removing the impure material and then slicing the silicon remaining in square or rectangles.

Los Mono are more efficient per unit area as it makes cuts, surpluses from the semiconductor industry.

Multi or polycrystalline silicon can be obtained more economically, though the costs of both technologies vary each day depending on local issues such as the amount of discarded silicon existing in the free market.

In the case of BP Solarex, works both technologies: monocrystalline under the trade name BP Solar and Solarex polycrystalline branded in parallel.

For Amorphous silicon solar panels, the material is vaporized and deposited on glass or stainless steel. This procedure produces less efficient cells, but only requires a silicon film thickness estimated at roughly one fifth of the cells in mono or poly. At the same time the costs of production technology are lower than the other methods. With this technology takes the appearance of “stained glass”. BP Solarex has two thin film technologies which only one is now available in trade volume.