Sunrise Energy Co., Ltd.
Sunrise Energy Co., Ltd.

Analysis of the Advantages and Disadvantages of Monocrystalline Silicon, Polycrystalline Silicon, and Amorphous Silicon Cells

From the appearance, the four corners of the monocrystalline cell are arc-shaped and the surface is not patterned; while the four corners of the polycrystalline silicon cell are square and the surface has a pattern similar to ice flowers; the amorphous silicon cell is the thin-film module that we usually talk about, which is not like a crystalline silicon cell where the grid lines can be seen, and the surface is as clear and smooth as a mirror.


The difference between the use of monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, and amorphous silicon cells


For users, there is not much difference between single crystalline solar cell and polycrystalline silicon cells, and their service life and stability are very good. Although the average conversion efficiency of monocrystalline cells is about 1% higher than that of polycrystalline silicon cell, because monocrystalline cells can only be made into a quasi-square shape (all four sides are arc-shaped), when forming solar panels there will be a part of the area which is not full; while polysilicon is square, so there is no such a problem.


Their advantages and disadvantages are as follows:

Crystal silicon module: The power of a single module is relatively high. Under the same floor space, the installed capacity is higher than that of thin film modules. However, the modules are thick and fragile, have poor high-temperature performance, poor low-light performance, and high annual attenuation rate.


Thin film modules: The power of a single module is relatively low; the stability is poor, and it will be stable after a long time of operation. But the power generation performance is high, the high temperature performance is good, the low light performance is good, the power loss because of shade is small, and the annual attenuation rate is low. The application environment is wide. It is beautiful and environmentally friendly.


The difference in the manufacturing process of monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, and amorphous silicon cells


The energy consumed in the manufacturing process of polycrystalline silicon solar cells is about 30% less than that of monocrystalline solar cells. Therefore, polycrystalline silicon solar cells account for a large share of the total global bulk solar cell output, and the manufacturing cost is less than that of monocrystalline cells. Therefore, the use of polycrystalline silicon solar cells will be more energy-saving and environmentally friendly!


In fact, there are many semiconductor materials available for manufacturing solar cells. With the development of the material industry, there will be more and more varieties of solar cells. At present, research and trial-produced solar cells include many types such as cadmium sulfide, gallium arsenide, copper indium selenium solar cells, etc., in addition to the silicon series. These materials are usually used to make amorphous silicon cells.


Therefore, when we choose photovoltaic modules, we recommend choosing more mature products of crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules according to the actual situation. There have been controversies about monocrystalline and polycrystalline cells. We installers think there is little difference in the power generation of home photovoltaic power generation systems for these two, and the utilization area of  monocrystalline cell will be relatively high, and the area utilization rate of  monocrystalline cell will be better; the proportion of polycrystalline market is relatively high, its application is relatively wide, and it boasts a certain advantage in terms of price, but we must understand that for the photovoltaic system with the same power, the requirement on the power generation is the same.