Читать книгу Materials for Solar Energy Conversion - Группа авторов - Страница 50

Cadmium telluride is a thin layered film semiconductor, which is used to convert receiving solar light into electrical energy [25]. The cadmium PV solar cell consists of two layers, which are top and bottom layers; the bottom layer is made up of carbon paste and top layer is made up of cadmium built stannous oxide or tin oxide, which is shown in Figure 2.4. Cadmium telluride is located between the top layer and semiconductor. The cadmium telluride-based solar PV cells are the second highest technology available in the market after the crystalline silicon. Among the different types of solar PV cells available in the world market nearly 7% is cadmium telluride.

Figure 2.4 Cadmium telluride PV cell.

The major advantages of this type of solar PV cells are time and cost for manufacturing is lower, and it can also be replaced by conventional silicon PV technologies. In total production, 21.5% of cadmium telluride–based PV cells are fabricated by First Solar, and its efficiency is 14.7% [13].