Types of Solar Panels

There are 3 types of solar panels available on today’s market. They are polycrystalline, monocrystalline and thin-film amorphous.

Polycrystalline and monocrystalline silicon are solar cells made of crystalline silicon. 2-3 years ago, the most common type of solar panels used in residential solar installations in the United States was monocrystalline but in the past three years, polycrystalline solar panels have dominated the residential sector.

Polycrystalline and monocrystalline solar cells are overall similar as far as performance. Solar panel durability is reliant on the manufacturing process. Because solar technology is ever evolving, it’s important your panels have a good warranty. Some companies will replace the panel when its performance falls below a guaranteed level.

Solar panels look the same. Thin film is the only solar panel variety that uses a completely different technology. While it is much less efficient and takes up more roof space, its primary advantage is that it performs better in low light conditions when the system has partial shadows or is chronically exposed to extreme heat.

Monocrystalline:

This is the bread and butter of solar panels. While it has been in use the longest, it’s still the most advanced of these three technologies. As the name suggests, single-crystal panels are panels from a single continuous crystal structure. Single crystal panels cells display in a single flat color.

Manufactured by the Czochralski method, in which silicon seeds are “seed” into molten silicon barrels. Then, they slowly lift the seed with molten silicon to form a solid crystal structure called a crystal ingot around the seed. The formed solid silicon is cut into thin slices, called silicon wafers. Then make it into a unit. The Czochralski process produces large cylindrical ingots. It takes four slices from the ingot to make a silicon wafer. A large amount of raw silicon ends up as waste.

Monocrystalline Performance:

Monocrystalline solar panels are of the highest grade of silicon and therefore have the highest efficiency. On October 2, 2105, SolarCity announced that it had developed the world’s most efficient solar panel. The monocrystalline panel alters more than 22% of sunlight into the current.

Polycrystalline:

Polycrystalline is known as multi-crystalline is a newer technology and will vary during manufacturing. Polycrystals also began by putting “seeds” of silicon crystals into a bucket of molten silicon. However, rather than pulling silicon seeds like single crystal silicon, it is better to cool the silicon barrel.

Unique edges and grains then form in solar cells. Polycrystalline cells are slightly inferior to single crystal cells. Because of their minor lower efficiency and cheaper production methods, they have become the leading technology in the housing solar panel market.

Polycrystalline Performance:

In November 2015, Trina Solar announced that it produced 21.25% multi-crystalline cells. This will enable them to produce multi-crystalline modules with efficiency between 18% and 20%, a concept that was impossible until 2013.

The new record for p-type polycrystalline or multi-crystalline silicon solar cells is the continuous improvement in the quality of multi-crystalline silicon wafers, which has helped improve the standard 60-cell multi-crystalline silicon panel from 240W to 260W in recent years. In terms of efficiency, multi-crystalline are now very close to single crystal cells.

Thin-Film:

Thin-film panels are a completely different technology than monocrystalline and multi-crystalline panels. Compared to single crystal and polycrystalline or multi-crystalline batteries, they are a newer technology and have not matured in the market. However, we should see significant improvements that in the next decade. The thin-film panel cells look almost pure black. This film is available without a frame. A panel with no frame is still a thin-film panel.

Depositing photovoltaic substances onto solid surfaces such as glass creates thin-film panels. The photovoltaic substances used are diverse and various combinations of substances and are most active in the commercial market. The most common photovoltaic substances used include:

• Amorphous silicon
• CdTe (Cadmium telluride)
• CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium Selenide)
• DSC (Dye-sensitized solar cells)

Each of these is referred to as a different panel “type”, but all are film panels

Thin-Film Performance:

Thin-film cells are known as the “worst” solar panel technology because of their lowest efficiency. However, this is only because they are less power efficient, which only means that they need the most space to get the same power. Due to the low material costs of thin films, and as they have become the cheapest panels to produce, they have quickly become economically more efficient panel types.

Depending on the technology, the efficiency of the thin-film module prototype can reach 7-13%, and the efficiency of the production module is about 9%. The efficiency of future modules is expected to climb to about 10-16%. From 2002 to 2007, the thin-film photovoltaic market grew at a rate of 60% annually. In 2011, nearly 5% of the photovoltaic modules shipped to the residential sector in the United States were thin films.