Solar energy is clean and is abundantly available. Solar technologies use the sun to provide heat, light, electricity, etc. for domestic and industrial applications. With the alarming rate of depletion of the major conventional energy resources such as Coal, Petroleum and Natural gas. These are combined with the environmental degradation caused by the process of harnessing these energy sources. This has become an urgent necessity to invest in renewable energy resources that would power the future sufficiently without degrading the environment through greenhouse gas emission. The energy potential of the sun is immense but despite this unlimited solar energy resource, harvesting is a challenge mainly because of the limited efficiency of the array cells. The best conversion efficiency of most commercially available solar cells is in the range 10- 20% [1], [8]. Although recent breakthrough in the technology of solar cells shows significant improvement but the fact that the maximum solar cell efficiency still falls in less than 20% range shows there are enormous room for improvement.
show more
