Solar Cell

Solar cell or photovoltaic cell is the conversion of light energy to electrical Energy.Mainly its made up with P-N junction diode That having two types of doping in single Silicon chip.

Types of Solar Cell:
A PV cell can be either circular in construction or square.
Cells are arranged in a frame to form a module. Modules put
together form a panel. Panels form an array.
Each PV cell is rated for 0.5 – 0.7 volt and a current of 30mA/cm2.

rectangle solar

round shape

Crystalline cells are made from ultra-pure silicon raw material such as those used in
semiconductor chips. They use silicon wafers that are typically 150-200 microns (one fifth
of a millimetre) thick.

fig: crystal solar

Thin film is made by depositing layers of semiconductor material barely 0.3 to 2
micrometres thick onto glass or stainless steel substrates. As the semiconductor layers
are so thin, the costs of raw material are much lower than the capital equipment and
processing costs.

fig: Thin film solar

Photovoltaic cells are connected electrically in series and/or parallel circuits to produce higher voltages, currents and power levels.

• Photovoltaic modules consist of PV cell circuits and are the fundamental building blocks of PV systems. Photovoltaic panels include one or more Solar Cell.
PV modules assembled as a pre-wired, fieldinstallable
unit.
A photovoltaic array is the complete powergenerating
unit, consisting of any number of PV
modules and panels.

Photo Voltaic Effect

Photovoltaic effect is the effect that generates electriciry by using solar power.

There solar power means sun power.
Sun is the primary source of energy. Any non conventional energy depends upon sun. 
At any moment, the sun emits about 3.86 x 10²⁶ watts of energy. So add 24 zeros to the end of that number, and you'll get an idea of how unimaginably large an amount of energy that is! Most of that energy goes off into space, but about 1.74 x 10¹⁷ watts strikes the earth.

fig; Soler effect

But not all of the energy converts into solar energy.
The Earth receives 174 petawatts (PW) of incoming solar radiation (insolation) at the upper atmosphere. Approximately 30% is reflected back to space while the rest is absorbed by clouds, oceans and land masses.
 Photovoltaic effect
Photovoltaic effect is the effect that generates electricity by using solar power.

fig: photovoltaic effect

The photovoltaic (PV) effect is the basis of the conversion of light to electricity in
photovoltaic, or solar, cells.
Described simply:
the PV effect is as follows Light, which is pure energy, enters a
Solar Cell
PV cell and imparts enough energy to some electrons (negatively charged
atomic particles) to free them.
A built-in-potential barrier in the cell acts on these electrons to produce a
voltage (the so-called photovoltage), which can be used to drive a current
through a circuit.

Fig: Photovoltaic Cell

Photovloiaic Cell/Solar Cell: Solar cell or photovoltaic cell is the conversion of light energy to electrical Energy.
Mainly its made up with P-N junction diode That having two types of doping in single Silicon chip.
For demonstrating the photovoltaic effect let us assume a block of silicon crystal.
 The upper portion of this block is doped with donor impurities and lower portion is doped with accept or impurities. Hence the concentration of free electrons is quite high in n-type region compared to p-type region and concentration of hole is quite high in p-type region compared to n-type region of the block. There will be a high concentration gradient of charge carriers across the junction line of the block. Free electrons from n-type region try to diffuse to p-type region and holes in p-type region try to diffuse to n-type region in the crystal. This is because charge carriers by nature always tend to diffuse from high concentration region to low concentration region. Each free electron of n-type region while comes to the p-type region due to diffusion, it leaves a positive donor ion behind it in the n-type region. 

fig: Solar cell