One of the first questions to consider when shopping for solar panels for your home or business is whether you should pick mono or poly solar panels.
Poly solar panel definition.
Polycrystalline silicon or multicrystalline silicon also called polysilicon or poly si is a high purity polycrystalline form of silicon used as a raw material by the solar photovoltaic and electronics industry.
Up until a few years ago most solar panels were monocrystalline but in the last three years polycrystalline solar panels have overtaken them as the most commonly used panel.
Polycrystalline solar panels are getting their due.
Polymer solar cell the polymer solar cell is a layered structure consisting of as a minimum a transparent front electrode an active layer which is the actual semiconducting polymer material and a back electrode printed onto a plastic substrate.
Polysilicon is produced from metallurgical grade silicon by a chemical purification process called the siemens process.
Both mono and poly solar panels are made of silicon have silicon molded into crystalline forms but there are some major differences between the two types and each has their advantages and disadvantages.
They were thought of as inferior and not able to attain the efficiency of monocrystalline solar panels.
This process involves distillation of volatile silicon compounds and their decomposition into silicon at high temperatures.
Composition of mono and poly solar cells in case of monocrystalline cell each cell is made of one piece of silicon crystal.
Monocrystalline sticks are extracted from molten silicon and cut into thin plates vafers.
Polycrystalline cells are formed of liquid silicon which is poured into blocks which are then cut into plates.
Polycrystalline solar panels are also made from silicon.
However instead of using a single crystal of silicon manufacturers melt many fragments of silicon together to form the wafers for the panel.