Solar Industry is in the process of getting revolutionised. Thinktanks of the entire world are investing their energies towards exponentially increasing our ability to generate power from sunlight. Although consistent efforts have been made in this area since the 17th century, the last few decades are of special importance. Discoveries of the past are getting implemented that enables us to successfully generate electricity from abundant sunlight. One of such sought after development is the PERC technology.
What is it that makes PERC solar panels stand out from conventional solar panels? Why PERC solar panels are the talk of the town in today’s world? Is PERC technology worth going for? Let’s check it out.
Discovery of PERC
It all began in 1983 when an Australian scientist Martin Green and his team at the University of New South Wales developed a technology that increased the efficiency of a cell to produce electricity from sunlight. PERC or ‘Passivated Emitter Rear Contact’ is increasing the ability of a cell to draw maximum energy from sunlight. After numerous experiments and gradual progress, this technology has now hit the market and is selling like hot cakes for its advantages.
How exactly it works?
As the name suggests, in this technology, a ‘passivation layer’ at the rear of the cell increases its capacity to absorb sunlight and thus produce more energy. A hybrid four-junction receiver is used that has incredible ability to extract more energy for every beam of sunlight. As a result, the sunlight-to-electricity conversation ratio is considerably increased which means more electricity and eventually, more savings. When sunlight falls on this small four-junction mini-module, bounces off and is distributed to other parts of the cell. As this happens, relatively more electricity is generated by silicon cells present in a solar panel.
How is PERC beneficial?
If the ability to convert sunlight-to-electricity of every cell increases considerably, we will get amazingly high-power solar panels. This means more electricity per panel which results to more savings per panel too!
If each panel is going to be more efficient than conventional panels, you will surely need lesser panels for a system. Therefore, if you save on number of modules to be purchased, you will have lesser installation costs for module mounting structure, reduced costs of Balance of Systems (BOS, which has your wires, combiner boxes, nuts & bolts, etc) and not to forget reduced labour costs.
Are panels manufactured with PERC technology the perfect choice?
Well…. the answer is a yes as well as a no.
This technology is a value-addition if your project involves very high prices of land, labour or supplies. In such projects, the efficiency of the system may be topmost priority. So, PERC panels are a definite yes.
However, there are two major disadvantages of PERC technology. One is that panels manufactured by PERC technology are expensive and second, they reduce the lifespan of a panel due to an effect called Light Induced Degradation or LID.
So, in our opinion, play safe and wait for some more time till these two issues are taken care of before digging a hole in your pocket!
Do tell us if blog made it to your interesting reads. We would love to know your views on this topic.
