Potential induced degradation (also called PID) is a potential induced efficiency degradation in crystalline photovoltaic modules, brought on by supposed stray currents This effect may trigger power loss of approximately 30%.
The largest challenge for photovoltaic technology is said to be the purchase price per watt of electricity generated. New materials and manufacturing methods remain to boost the price to power efficiency. The issue resides in the huge activation energy that must be overcome for a photon to excite an electron for harvesting objectives. Advancements in photovoltaic technologies have brought about the procedure of “doping” the silicon substrate to reduce the activation energy consequently making the panel a lot more effective in transforming photons to retrievable electrons. Chemicals such as boron (p-type) are applied into the semiconductor crystal in order to create donor and acceptor power levels substantially closer to the valence and conductor bands.
In doing so, the addition of boron impurity enables the activation energy to decrease twenty-fold from 1.12 eV to 0.05 eV. Given that the potential distinction (EB) is so low, the Boron has the ability to thermally ionize at room temperatures. This enables free power carriers in the conduction and valence bands consequently enabling greater conversion of photons to electrons.