Solar Photovoltaics Fundamentals, Technology and Applications

The most important scientific and technical challenges facing humanity in the 21st century are energy security, environmental security and economic security; these can likely be met only through addressing the energy problem with in the next 10–20 years. Meeting global energy demand in a sustainable fashion will require not only increased energy efficiency and new methods of using existing carbon based fuels but also renewable energy. Moreover, rising prices and sporadic shortages of fossil fuels provides the impetus for the present worldwide effort to develop alternative sources of energy. Solar energy is to be a major primary energy source; utilization requires solar capture and conversion. In this course we will discuss about various photovoltaics technologies, different generation of solar cells, device fabrication and characterization techniques and applications in industries.PREREQUISITES: Basic knowledge of 12th standard physics is sufficientINDUSTRY SUPPORT: Renewable energy sectors, power industries and Green building companies will be interested

Week 1: Introduction to course, Review of Semiconductor Physics, Charge carrier generation and recombination, p-n junction model and depletion capacitance, Current voltage characteristics in dark and lightWeek 2: Device Physics of Solar Cells, Principle of solar energy conversion, Conversion efficiency, Single, tandem multi-junction solar cells, Numerical solar cell modelingWeek 3: Numerical solar cell modeling, Crystalline silicon and III-V solar cells, Thin film solar cells: Amorphous silicon, Quantum Dot solar cells,Week 4: Introduction to Dye Sensitized Solar Cells, Fabrication of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells, Design of novel dyes, Design of solid electrolytes materials, Counter electrode engineeringWeek 5: Introduction to Organic Solar Cells, Physics of Bulk Heterojunction(BHJ) Solar Cells, Morphology and charge separation in BHJ, Design of low bandgap polymersWeek 6: Perovskite Solar Cells, Fabrication of perovskite solar cells, Photophysics in perovskite solar cells, Stability in perovskite solar cells, Lead free perovskite solar cellsWeek 7: Photovoltaic system engineering, Thermo- Photovoltaic generation of electricity, Concentration and storage of electrical energy, Photovoltaics modules, system and application, Green energy buildingWeek 8: Nanomaterials for photovoltaics, PV panels with nanostructures, Band gap engineering and optical engineering, Photo thermal cells, Energy Economy and management