According to United States Geological Survey (USGS), indium ranks 61st in abundance in the Earth’s crust at an
estimated 240 parts per billion by weight. This makes it about three
times more abundant than silver or mercury.
Currently silver is about US300/kg and consumption is comparable to indium.
The current high price of indium is caused by market speculation.
Indium occurs predominantly in the zinc-sulfide ore mineral,
sphalerite. Once zinc price stabilize from falling, indium production
would rise accordingly then its price would come down to where it
should be.
CIS solar cell contains about 3g of indium per M2.
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More than 90% of solar modules produced are made from crystalline silicon solar cells.
Each solar cell is about 100mm-150mm in square and 300um in thickness (0.3mm).
In smaller products like solar garden lights, manufacturers cut the
cell down to smaller bits then put them together again to make a module.
For other consumer products like calculators, they often employ amorphous silicon solar cells.
The active layer is about 2um thin. We usually call it a thin film technology.
The other commercialized thin film technology includes polycrystalline
Cadmium Telluride (CdTe), Copper Indium diSelenide (CIGS or CIS) and
Gallium Arsenide (GaAs).
There are also other technologies under development, like thin silicon
crystalline, spheral crystalline silicon, organic cells and
nano-material solar cells.
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Solar cell is an electronic device that converts light energy to electrical energy.
Solar plate is a series of solar cells connected together on a
substrate or superstrate to give the desired voltage and amperage.
To make a solar module, a plate would be encapsulated with desired
material to protect it from environmental elements and give it the
mechanical strength. It is also wired for electrical connection and
framed to facilitate mounting. A majority of modules also are equipped
with a junction box to protect the electrical terminals.
In some applications, diodes are added in the junction box to regulate flows of electricity.
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Different types of solar cells reacts differently to:
1) light spectrum (colors)
2) intensity
3) temperature
and some solar cells last longer with less degradation than the others.
They also have different transformation efficiency.
When taking into all the factors above, CIS is the most rounded technology that promise to deliver.
About the graph:
Wavelengths we can see is from around 400nm (blue) to 800nm (deep red).
The black line (Sunlight spectrum) shows the range of lights receiving on earth.
CIS (in purple) has the widest response and good sensitivity to different "colors" of light.
Amorphous silicon (a-Si, in blue) is good when the lights constitute more UV (or with fluorescent light bulbs).
Crystalline silicon (c-Si, in pink) is good for red and near-infrared lights.
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Photovoltaic is the conversion of light energy to electrical energy.
PV is the abbreviation. |
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