Use Of Tellurium In Solar Panels

Human exposure to tellurium can lead to a garlic odor on the breath nausea and eventual respiratory problems.

Use of tellurium in solar panels.

Cadmium telluride solar cells the united states is the leader in cadmium telluride cdte photovoltaic pv manufacturing and nrel has been at the forefront of research and development in this area. Tellurium s primary use is for manufac turing films essential to photovoltaic solar. A new report by the french environment and energy management agency ademe shows that rare earth minerals are not widely used in solar energy and battery storage technologies. Of all the solar technologies cdte solar panels are the most.

Pv solar cells based on cdte represent the largest segment of commercial thin film module production worldwide. Cadmium telluride is one of the second generation thin film solar cell technologies. Cadmium telluride photovoltaics describes a photovoltaic technology that is based on the use of cadmium telluride in a thin semiconductor layer designed to absorb and convert sunlight into electricity. Tellurium or its toxic effect on humans and ecosystems.

When alloyed with other elements. How do we use tellurium. Cadmium telluride is a direct bandgap material with bandgap energy of about 1 45 defined ev which is well matched to the solar spectrum and nearly optimal for converting sunlight into electricity using a single junction. While some of today s solar cells use a blend of cadmium and tellurium to convert light into electricity adding the optimum amount of selenium in the right places could help increase efficiency.

Tellurium alloyed with cadmium forms the compound cadmium telluride cdte a highly conductive compound when exposed to sunlight. On a lifecycle basis cdte pv has the smallest carbon footprint lowest water use and shortest energy payback time of any current photo voltai. Cadmium telluride pv is the only thin film technology with lower costs than conventional solar cells made of crystalline silicon in multi kilowatt systems.