The application of solar cells has been from the military field, space field into industry, commerce, agriculture, communications, household appliances and public facilities and other sectors, especially can be dispersed in remote areas, mountains, deserts, islands and rural use, to save the cost of expensive transmission lines. However, at this stage, its cost is still very high, and it needs to invest tens of thousands of dollars to emit 1kW of electricity, so large-scale use is still economically restricted.
The photovoltaic cells sold on the market are mainly produced from monocrystalline silicon. Due to the large energy consumption of monocrystalline silicon cell production, some experts believe that the existing monocrystalline silicon cell production energy consumption is greater than the solar energy captured during its life cycle, is not valuable. The optimistic estimate is that it will take about 10 years before the solar energy obtained by using monocrystalline silicon cells is greater than the energy consumed in their production. Monocrystalline silicon is obtained by reducing quartz sand, melting and pulling single crystals. The production process consumes a lot of energy, produces a lot of toxic and harmful substances, and causes serious environmental pollution. Foreign countries have shifted their production to China. Large production lines of monocrystalline silicon and monocrystalline silicon cells throughout China.
However, we do not have the technology to produce photovoltaic cells. Although the production technology of monocrystalline silicon photovoltaic cells is very mature, it is still developing, and various other photovoltaic cell technologies are also emerging. There is still a big gap between the cost and photoelectric conversion efficiency of photovoltaic cells and the real market, and the photovoltaic cell market mainly relies on government financial subsidies. Photovoltaic power generation subsidies in the European market are as high as 1 yuan per kilowatt-hour. In the future, to make the large-scale application of photovoltaic cells, it is necessary to continuously improve the efficiency and production costs of photovoltaic cells, in this process, production technology and products will continue to be updated. Its replacement cycle is short, only 3-5 years. Photovoltaic cell production enterprises invest large, long recovery cycle, due to fast technology update, domestic enterprises, if they do not master the technology, timely update technology, will soon be eliminated, is likely to be unable to recover the investment.
However, in the long run, with the improvement of solar cell manufacturing technology and the invention of new light-electric conversion devices, the protection of the environment and the huge demand for renewable clean energy in various countries, solar cells will still be a more practical way to use solar radiation energy, which can open up broad prospects for the large-scale use of solar energy for mankind in the future.
