PV Gap

Mae Said:

How much would a typical solar cell cost to buy? ?

We Answered:

There isn't really a "typical" solar cell, any more than there's a typical bicycle.

The tiny amorphous cells on calculators probably cost about 2 cents. The kind of cell on an inexpensive garden light probably costs $1. More powerful cells can be found on eBay, or places like the site below.

The cheapest grade of multijunction cell from Spectrolab is about $250 each.

Brian Said:

how much does a solar cell cost in Indian currency???

We Answered:

First thing you need to do is find the solar cell you want to buy and then go to yahoo and type in the word "currency" it will come up with lots of converters.

enjoy

Katie Said:

how much does a standard silicon solar cell cost per inch?

We Answered:

I hope you mean by square inch, not by inch.

you can find many for sale online. Reference has one that is about 3" x 1.75 inch or about 5.25 square inches for $9. It develops 0.2 watts in full sunlight.

.

Casey Said:

How much does it cost to produce one photovoltaic solar cell?

We Answered:

In the factory is depends on the material and company.


First Solar was producing CdTe solar cells at $0.76 per Watt-peak in July, their prices have generally been falling (they were over a dollar a coupla years ago), but tellurium prices do move up and down quite a bit.
http://www.pv-tech.org/news/_a/manufactu…

The cheapest silicon solar cells I know of are $1.08 per watt-peak from SunPower:
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/189…


You might think that obviously CdTe are always better, but that might not always be true. SunPower cells are more efficient, so you need less land and less work to install them. Things like frames, wiring, land etc all cost money and for each watt SunPower cells cost less to install.

However, so far the cheapest solar cell parks I know of (e.g. Waldpolenz in Germany) have been built with CdTe from FirstSolar.

Evelyn Said:

Give me an example of a solar cell used in a non-scientific calculator, and how much would it cost in bulk?

We Answered:

Air vent fans for top of windows in cars. (sold by Northern tools, jc whitney, etc.) The cell that was mentioned before as per street lights is actually a cad cell, that has variable Resistance, and by on control circuit power supply, it operates a relay to control the light. The best place for a mid line quantity 500 ea. @ digikey .52 ea. But the prof may in reality want the best per watt price, no links right now but have found as low as $3.00/watt a few years ago.

Terrance Said:

why cost of solar cell is high?

We Answered:

Maybe becaseu to make an efficient one you need a good amount of energing involved.

To make multilayerd semiconductiorrs. To make high transmission low refletion glass. To optomize conductor diatmeters, and materrial (which may be soemthing expensive). To get a reliable seal/vacuum that requries little maintanence.

Of course for a cheaper one you can have cheap materials and a not so good vacuum