Customer Reviews

Third Generation Photovoltaics: Advanced Solar Energy Conversion (Springer Series in Photonics)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wish to alert the reader interested in the thermodynamic aspects of solar energy conversion to another amazing book:

Endoreversible Thermodynamics of Solar Energy Conversion, A. de Vos

This is a complex but important subject, and I found that both these books will help the reader. Green's book is more semiconductor-centric, while de Vos presents a more general theoretical model. The book by Nelson is also a good starting point for device physics, referencing both the Green and de Vos books on thermo material.

I found this book fairly difficult to follow, and the notation was a bit clumsy. Also, it is very general in the way it deals with the topics. It is good for certain topics, like the timescale of absorption of photons in a solar cell and how fast the excited electrons cool, however the section on the thermodynamics I found to be fairly difficult to follow. I think that the book "The Physics of Solar Cells" by Nielson is much easier to follow.

This book is not for undergraduate level students. Many equations are not derived but just presented in the book assuming you know all the details. To read this book, you will need background in Thermal Physics and Semiconductor Physics (PN junction). Also, the continuity of ideas are not well organized in each chapter and jumping around without pointing out the significance of it. One need to work on the exercises of each chapter in order to grasp a better understanding in the text. Different ideas are tossing around inside the book's chapters with no practical importance at all. All useful infomation is contained in the first 5 chapters and readers can neglect the rest of the books since it would not help you in any way in practice. (I would call those device ideas presented after chapter 5 : "imaginary devices" that will never happen in your life time)

For engineer/scientist who wants to be exposed in this field (for the first time), Professor Peter Wurful's book "Physics of Solar Cells" is a much better book and a lot easier to read. (Also very well organized and presented in a systemical way.) I strongly recommend people to read Peter Wurful's book before reading this book, otherwise you will be VERY frustrated.

It is not a bad book but..... not suitable for most of engineers.....except for people with very strong background in this field. Hence only 2 stars!

Martin Green has done it again. Just what the researcher and applications scientist needs. Well done!

Third Generation Photovoltaics: Advanced Solar Energy Conversion (Springer Series in Photonics)