Renewable energy is emerging as a reliable alternative source of energy, it is much safer, cleaner than conventional sources and has contributed significantly in this sector. However, there are still some challenges that needed to address this evolving technology. Artificial Intelligence (A. I.) can assess the past, optimize the present, and forecast the future. Therefore, A. I. will resolve most of these problems. Artificial intelligence is complex in nature, but it reduces error and aims to reach a greater degree of precision which make renewables smarter. This paper provides an overview of frequently used A. I. methods in solar energy applications. A sample algorithm is also provided for literature purposes and knowledge transfer.

Bifacial and semitransparent hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin-film solar cells in p-i-n configuration were prepared with front and rear transparent conducting oxide (TCO) electrodes using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition method. Fluorine-doped tin oxide and tin-doped indium oxide films were used as front and rear TCO contacts, respectively. Film thickness of intrinsic a-Si:H absorber layers were controlled from 150 nm to 450 nm by changing deposition time. The dependence of performance characteristics of solar cells on the front and rear illumination direction were investigated. For front illumination, gradual increase in the short-circuit current density (J_SC) from 10.59 mA/㎠ to 14.19 mA/㎠ was obtained, whereas slight decreases from 0.83 V to 0.81 V for the open-circuit voltage (V_OC) and from 68.43% to 65.75% for fill factor (FF) were observed. The average optical transmittance in the wavelength region of 380 ~ 780 nm of the solar cells decreased gradually from 22.76% to 15.67% as the absorber thickness was changed from 150 nm to 450 nm. In case of the solar cells under rear illumination condition, the J_SC increased from 10.81 to 12.64 mA/㎠ and the FF deceased from 66.63% to 61.85%, while the V_OC values were maintained at 0.80 V with increasing the absorber thickness from 150 nm to 450 nm. By optimizing the deposition parameters, a high-quality bifacial and semitransparent a-Si:H solar cell with 350 nm-thick i-a-Si:H absorber layer exhibited the conversion efficiencies of 7.69% for front illumination and 6.40% for rear illumination, and average visible optical transmittance of 17.20%.

Cu(In,Ga)₃Se₅ (β-CIGS) has a band gap of 1.35 eV, which is an optimum value for high solar-energy conversion efficiency. The effects of Cu and Ga content on the cell performance were investigated previously. However, the effect of Se content on the cell performance is not well understood yet. In this work, β-CIGS films were fabricated by three-stage co-evaporation of elemental sources with various Se fluxes at the third stage instead of at all stages. The average composition of five samples was Cu_1.05(In_0.59,Ga_0.41)3Se_y, where the stoichiometric y value is 5.03 and the stoichiometric Se/metal (Se/M) ratio is 1.24. We varied the Se/metal ratio in a range from 1.18 to 1.28. We found that the best efficiency was achieved when the Se/M ratio was 1.24, which is exactly the stoichiometric value where the CIGS grains on the CIGS surface were tightly connected and faceted. With the optimum Se/M ratio, we were able to enhance the cell efficiency of a β-CIGS solar cell from 9.6% to 12.0% by employing a Na₂S post deposition treatment. Our results indicate that Na₂S post deposition treatment is very effective to enhance the cell efficiency to a level on par with that in α-CIGS cell.

The output power of a crystalline silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic (PV) module is not directly the sum of the powers of its unit cells. There are several losses and gain mechanisms that reduce the total output power when solar cells are encapsulated into solar modules. Theses factors are getting high attention as the high cell efficiency achievement become more complex and expensive. More research works are involved to minimize the "cell-to-module" (CTM) loss. Our paper is aimed to focus on electrical losses due to interconnection and mismatch loss at PV modules. Research study shows that among all reasons of PV module failure 40.7% fails at interconnection. The mismatch loss in modern PV modules is very low (nearly 0.1%) but still lacks in the approach that determines all the contributing factors in mismatch loss. This review paper is related to study of interconnection loss technologies and key factors contributing to mismatch loss during module fabrication. Also, the improved interconnection technologies, understanding the approaches to mitigate the mismatch loss factors are precisely described here. This research study will give the approach of mitigating the loss and enable improvement in reliability of PV modules.

In this research, the concept of a salt farm parallel solar power system, which produce salt and electricity at the same site, is proposed for the first time in the world. The concept is that large waterproof plates made by interconnected solar modules are installed at the bottom of the salt farm. The pilot system was successfully installed at a sea shore, and verified its feasibility as a solar power plant. For deeper understanding, simulations for power prediction of the system were carried out and compared with the field test results. The power generation of the salt farm parallel system is comparable to conventional solar power plants. The cooling effect by sea water contributes more to the increase in the crystalline silicon photovoltaic module performance than the absorption loss due to sea water by maintaining certain height above the module.

Recently, carrier-selective contact solar cells have attracted much interests because of its high efficiency with low recombination current density. In this study, we investigated the effect of phosphorus doped amorphous silicon layer's characteristics on the passivation properties of tunnel oxide passivated carrier-selective contact solar cells. We fabricated symmetric structure sample with poly-Si/SiOx/c-Si by deposition of phosphorus doped amorphous silicon layer on the silicon oxide with subsequent annealing and hydrogenation process. We varied deposition temperature, deposition thickness, and annealing conditions, and blistering, lifetime and passivation quality was evaluated. The result showed that blistering can be controlled by deposition temperature, and passivation quality can be improved by controlling annealing conditions. Finally, we achieved blistering-free electron carrier-selective contact with 730mV of i-Voc, and cell-like structure consisted of front boron emitter and rear passivated contact showed 682mV i-Voc.

The Ag crystallite formed during the formation of the front electrode forms a contact between the metal of the electrode and the emitter of the cell. Contact between the electrode and emitter plays an important role in collecting electrons generated by the solar cell. Therefore, Ag crystallite formation is an important factor. In order for solar cells to have good characteristics, it is important to understand the factors influencing the Ag crystallite formation. Factors affecting the formation of Ag crystallites include Si emitter, morphology, Si defect and firing temperature. The influence of surface morphology on Ag crystallite formation was confirmed throughout this study. In the case of fine texturing, the Ag crystallites were formed at the pointed parts. The finer the texturing, the sharper areas and more Ag crystallites were formed. This was confirmed by SEM image and FF calculation.