Silicon-based solar cells Characteristics and production processes ...

Silicon-based solar cells – characteristics and production processes
1. Photovoltaics in the world – base materials and their producers
Photovoltaics (PV) is a scientific field which deals with obtaining electric energy
from electromagnetic radiation energy, whose general and unlimited source is the
Sun, and thus, single radiation-electric energy converters are called solar cells. The
wide range of the world’s photovoltaics is exhibited in the annual global, American,
European and Asian conferences, where the most recent research and scientific
achievements are verified among experts, and the parallelly held exhibitions present
the newest developments made by the producers of materials, components, devices
and measuring and diagnostic stations. For example, the XXVI European Photovoltaics
Conference in 2011, in Hamburg (26th EU PVSEC in Hamburg, 999 exhibitors and
1,500 Conference presentations. Participants from more than 100 countries.),
gathered over 4000 participants. The conference included presentations of 1500
lectures, and the parallelly held fair, during which about 999 exhibitors presented
their products, was visited by about 41000 people from 103 countries. It can be
stated that photovoltaics has become a new specialization in science and technology
and, as an industrial sector, it now provides benefits not only in the form of a new
type of unconventional method of electric energy production, but also in the
stimulation of the economic and social development in those countries which see
a big potential in its promotion.
Fig. 1. Exhibition halls and stalls of the companies from the PV sector presenting their
products during the XXVI European Photovoltaic Conference, in 2011, in Hamburg.
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