Solar panels - Cadmium and Silicon

[Ga Rick Lee]

An email received by the DKA Solar Centre -

Hi
I understand there are two types of cells used Cadmium and Silicon

Can you please let me know is any one done a comparison of these two technologies? what you recommend and why?
Regards
...

[Ga Rick Lee]

Hi,

Thanks for your email.

There are a number of different types of photovoltaic (PV) cells, including monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride, and copper indium selenide/sulfide.

Data directly comparing the performance of Cadmium, Silicon and other PV technologies is available on our website.

The purpose of the DKA Solar Centre is to demonstrate and monitor a range of solar technologies in an impartial and unbiased way. Consequently, we have deliberately avoided getting into the role of recommending one panel/system over another. Rather, it is our role to present the information and allow people to draw their own conclusions - particularly as the decision as to what is "best" is intimately tied with the cost. I.e. one panel may give 5% more energy than another (for the same sized array) but it could cost 10% more - in which case the best outcome is to go with the less efficient array that is better value for money.

You can look at the graphing pages
http://www.dkasolarcentre.com.au/flash/graphing.html
and select a range of technologies to see how much energy they provide over the course of the year, as per the image below:

The intention is to assess the cost of the proposed system versus the amount of energy it will produce over a given year – note: this is different to the power it will produce at a given point in time. A well functioning system may never achieve the nominal peak output of the panels due to losses etc., but can still produce the energy that has been estimated.

Alternatively, if you would like to play with all of the data yourself, you can register for access to the historic data here:

http://www.dkasolarcentre.com.au/go/historical-data/register

after you read the terms and conditions here:

http://www.dkasolarcentre.com.au/go/historical-data/terms-and-conditions

and you can then access it the data here:

http://www.dkasolarcentre.com.au/go/historical-data/login

I trust that this all makes sense.

Best regards,