MS4630: Photovoltaic and Energy Storage

Academic Units3
Semester2
Pre-requisite(s)Nil
Co-requisite(s)Nil

Course Instructors

Professor Alex Yan QingyuProfessor Lam Yeng Ming

Course AIMS

The course aims to introduce the concept of energy harnessing and energy storage technology through photovoltaics and batteries.

This course aims to give you a general introduction of materials used in photovoltaic devices and energy storage de vices. As a student, you would learn the fundamentals of how such devices operate and how those materials could be prepared. You would also learn the device structures and know the limit of the performance of such devices and understand the possible direction for future improvement.

You would be taught how materials selection and properties, which are strongly influenced by the device design and fabrication processes, affect the efficiency of the PV cell.

You also will learn various energy storage technologies, which are being used in market or under development for the future (energy storage, supercapacitor and batteries concepts, lithium ion battery technology). We will focus more on electrochemical energy storage on various batteries including primary and rechargeable ones. Fundamental principles will be given on illustrate the working mechanism of these devices.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you (as a student) would be able to:

  1. Explain the basic principles of photovoltaic devices.
  2. Evaluate PV device performance using standard performance matrix.
  3. Describe the different PV technologies including their advantage and disadvantages.
  4. Describe how PV device are fabricated.
  5. Perform materials selection for fabricating an efficient PV device.
  6. Propose improvement on PV device design.
  7. Identify factors that affect the performance of a PV device from materials selection and device fabrication.
  8. Explain the basic concepts behind electrochemical cells.
  9. Describe the structures, properties and working principles of key energy storage devices such as supercapacitors, primary and secondary batteries (such as lithium ion battery).
  10. Identify the potential, risk and limitations of different types of energy storage devices.
  11. Select materials when designing an energy storage device to meet expected requirements such as higher durability, etc.
  12. Evaluate the performance of energy storage devices using standard performance metrics; and
  13. Improve their performance by taking into consideration their structures, properties and working principles and the properties of available materials.

Course Content

  • Basics of Photovoltaic devices
  • Electrical Characterizations of PV devices
  • Silicon solar cell
  • Thin film solar cell
  • Third generation solar cell
  • Electrochemical cells
  • Supercapacitors
  • Primary battery
  • Secondary battery
  • Li-ion battery

Reading and References

  • Nelson, J. The Physics of Solar Cells, Imperial College Press, 2003.
  • T. Dittrich, Materials Concepts for Solar Cells, Imperial College Press, 2015
  • Luque, A. (Antonio), Handbook of photovoltaic science and engineering [electronic resource], Wiley,2003.
  • Robert Huggins, “Energy storage : fundamentals, materials and applications”, 2nd Ed.,Wiley, 2001