solar panels and its conversion effeciency

[Disha Karnataki]

why are solar panels so ineffecient??
why we donot use other materials which are photoemmisive in nature and have good affinity towads sunlight rather than using silicon?? I know silicon is abundant in nature but, extracting it from nature is also not that simple.
what is solar convesion effecinecy??

 

[barry]

I think you have asked and answered your own questions.

But do you think it's easier to extract gallium or cadmium than silicon? And there's also the issue of toxicity; cadmium and arsenic are extremely poisonous.

 

[Disha Karnataki]

let me know if i am wrong:
solar conversion effeciency is the amount of power produced to amount of light falling on the solar cell.
so till date the MAXeffeciency of the solar panels is 44.7%.
so what are the reasons for this low effeciency??
i will state some correct me if wrong:
1)the no of availability of electrons is less-then if this is the problem we can go for metals rather than arsenic (as you mentioned).
2)The electrons are suffecient but they are bound to nucleus and are not free to do work.
which is the real reason out of these??

 

[andre_luis]

so till date the MAXeffeciency of the solar panels is 44.7%.
so what are the reasons for this low effeciency??

Probably one of the most intuitive interpretation is that Sunlight radiation exhibits a wide spectrum frequency range, but solar panels are able to get a relative restrict bandwidth.



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[Disha Karnataki]

so my 2) point in the post #3 is correct.