A solar cell in its most fundamental form consists of a semiconductor light absorber with a specific energy band gap plus electron- and hole-selective contacts for charge carrier separation and extraction. Silicon solar cells have the advantage of using a photoactive absorber material that is abundant, stable, nontoxic, and well understood.
In most cases, solar cells are manufactured on a silicon material. Its proportion represents 40% of world-wide semiconductor solar cells production. Pure silicon material is founded directly in solid silica by electrolysis. The production of silicon by processing silica (SiO2) needs very high energy and more efficient methods of synthesis.
All silicon solar cells require extremely pure silicon. The manufacture of pure silicon is both expensive and energy intensive. The traditional method of production required 90 kWh of electricity for each kilogram of silicon. Newer methods have been able to reduce this to 15 kWh/kg.
Silicon solar cells are the most broadly utilized of all solar cell due to their high photo-conversion efficiency even as single junction photovoltaic devices. Besides, the high relative abundance of silicon drives their preference in the PV landscape.
The traditional method of production required 90 kWh of electricity for each kilogram of silicon. Newer methods have been able to reduce this to 15 kWh/kg. This still means that, depending upon its efficiency and the location of the device, a silicon solar cell can take up to 2 years to generate the energy used to make it.
Silica is utilized to create metallurgical grade silicon (MG-Si), which is subsequently refined and purified through a number of phases to create high-purity silicon which can be utilized in the solar cells. The silicon is first extracted from beach sand. Sand mining is only carried out on a few numbers of beaches throughout the globe.