Solar Energy Conversion and Storage by Photogalvanic Solar Cells
The consumption of non renewable sources of energy had caused more environmental damage than any other human activity. Electricity generated from fossil fuels such as coal, crude oil has led to high concentration of harmful gases in atmosphere. This has in turn led to problems such as ozone depletion and global warming. Due to the problems associated with the use of fossil fuels, alternative source of energy have become important and relevant in today’s world. These sources such as sun and wind can never be exhausted and therefore called renewable or non conventional source of energy, they cause less emission are available locally. Solar energy is currently thought to cost about twice as much as traditional sources (coal, oil etc.) obviously, as fossil fuel reserve become depleted, their cost with rise until a point is reached where solar cells become economically viable source of energy. Efforts are continuously going to increase the efficiency of these cells. The photogalvanic cell can become the low cost renewable source. The objectives of the studies are to study the fundamental processes operative in solution phase photogalvanic solar cell, mechanism of photochemical reactions in photogalvanic cell containing two electrodes, development of and effective photogalvanic solar system with enhanced storage capacity and fabrication of low cost, pollution free, hazardless, device for solar energy conversion and storage.