| cooperative electric association or utility | Utility owned and operated by its members. |
| liquid electrolyte battery | - A battery containing a liquid solution of acid and water. distilled water may be added to these batteries to replenish the electrolyte as necessary. also called a flooded battery because the p...
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| starved electrolyte cell | A battery containing little or no free fluid electrolyte. |
| nickel cadmium battery | A battery containing nickel and cadmium plates and an alkaline electrolyte. |
| vented cell | A battery designed with a vent mechanism to expel gases generated during charging. |
| captive electrolyte battery | - A battery having an immobilized electrolyte (gelled or absorbed in a material).
- A battery having an immobilized electrolyte (gelled or
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| float service | - A battery operation in which the battery is normally connected to an external current source; for instance, a battery charger which supplies the battery load< under normal conditions, while al...
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| secondary battery | A battery that can be recharged. |
| sealed battery | - A battery with a captive electrolyte and a resealing vent cap, also called a valve-regulated battery. electrolyte cannot be added.
- A battery with a captive electrolyte and a reseali...
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| deep-cycle battery | A battery with large plates that can withstand many discharges to a low state-of-charge. |
| shallow-cycle battery | A battery with small plates that cannot withstand many discharges to a low state-of-charge. |
| dry cell | - A cell (battery) with a captive electrolyte. a primary battery that cannot be recharged.
- A cell (battery) with a captive electrolyte. a primary battery that cannot be
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| schottky barrier | - A cell barrier established as the interface between a semiconductor, such as silicon, and a sheet of metal.
- A cell barrier established as the interface between a semiconductor, such...
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| trickle charge | A charge at a low rate, balancing through self-discharge losses, to maintain a |
| series controller | - A charge controller that interrupts the charging current by open-circuiting the photovoltaic (pv) array. the control element is in series with the pv array and battery.
- A charge con...
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| single-stage controller | A charge controller that redirects all charging current as the battery nears full state-of-charge. |
| shunt controller | A charge controller that redirects or shunts the charging current away from the battery. the controller requires a large heat sink to dissipate the current from the short-circuited photovoltaic ar... |
| multi-stage controller | A charging controller unit that allows different charging currents as the battery nears full state_of_charge. |
| dangling bonds | - A chemical bond associated with an atom on the surface layer of a crystal. the bond does not join with another atom of the crystal, but extends in the direction of exterior of the surface.
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| phosphorous (p) | - A chemical element used as a dopant in making n-type semiconductor layers.
- A chemical element used as a dopant in making n‐type semiconductor
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| cadmium (cd) | - A chemical element used in making certain types of solar cells and batteries.
- A chemical element used in making certain types of solar cells and
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| gallium (ga) | - A chemical element, metallic in nature, used in making certain kinds of solar cells and semiconductor devices.
- A chemical element, metallic in nature, used in making certain kinds o...
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| temperature compensation | A circuit that adjusts the charge controller activation points depending on battery temperature. this feature is recommended if the battery temperature is expected to vary more than ±5°c from ambi... |
| siemens process | A commercial method of making purified silicon. |
| plug-and-play pv system | A commercial, off-the-shelf photovoltaic system that is fully inclusive with little need for individual customization. the system can be installed without special training and using few tools. the... |
| photovoltaic (pv) system | - A complete set of components for converting sunlight into electricity by the photovoltaic process, including the array and balance of system components.
- A complete set of components...
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| charge controller | - A component of a photovoltaic system that controls the flow of current to and from the battery to protect it from over-charge and over-discharge. the charge controller may also indicate the sy...
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| vertical multijunction (vmj) cell | A compound cell made of different semiconductor materials in layers, one above the other. sunlight entering the top passes through successive cell barriers, each of which converts a separate porti... |
| split-spectrum cell | A compound photovoltaic device in which sunlight is first divided into spectral regions by optical means. each region is then directed to a different photovoltaic cell optimized for converting tha... |
| sulfation | A condition that afflicts unused and discharged batteries; large crystals of lead sulfate grow on the plate, instead of the usual tiny crystals, making the battery extremely difficult to recharge.... |
| equalizing charge | - A continuation of normal battery charging, at a voltage level slightly higher than the normal end-of-charge voltage, in order to provide cell equalization within a battery.
- A contin...
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| minority carrier | - A current carrier, either an electron or a hole, that is in the minority in a specific layer of a semiconductor material; the diffusion of minority carriers under the action of the cell juncti...
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| storage battery | - A device capable of transforming energy from electric to chemical form and vice versa. the reactions are almost completely reversible. during discharge, chemical energy is converted to electri...
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| electrochemical cell | - A device containing two conducting electrodes, one positive and the other negative, made of dissimilar materials (usually metals) that are immersed in a chemical solution (electrolyte) that tr...
электрохимический элемент; |
| thermophotovoltaic cell (tpv) | - A device where sunlight concentrated onto a absorber heats it to a high temperature, and the thermal radiation emitted by the absorber is used as the energy source for a photovoltaic cell that...
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| bypass diode | - A diode connected across one or more solar cells in a photovoltaic module such that the diode will conduct if the cell(s) become reverse biased. it protects these solar cells from thermal dest...
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| transparent conducting oxide (tco) | A doped metal oxide used to coat and improve the performance of optoelectronic devices such as photovoltaics and flat panel displays. most tco films are fabricated with polycrystalline or amorphou... |
| module derate factor | - A factor that lowers the photovoltaic module current to account for field operating conditions such as dirt accumulation on the module.
- A factor that lowers the photovoltaic module ...
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| adjustable set point | - A feature allowing the user to adjust the voltage levels at which a charge controller will become active.
- A feature allowing a user to adjust the voltage levels at which a
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| measurement and characterization | A field of research that involves assessing the characteristics of photovoltaic materials and devices. |
| standard reporting conditions (src) | A fixed set of conditions (including meteorological) to which the electrical performance data of a photovoltaic module are translated from the set of actual test conditions. |
| charge carrier | A free and mobile conduction electron or hole in a semiconductor. |
| lead-acid battery | A general category that includes batteries with plates made of pure lead, lead-antimony, or lead-calcium immersed in an acid electrolyte. |
| i-v curve | A graphical presentation of the current (i) versus the voltage (v) from a photovoltaic device as the load is increased from the short circuit (no load) condition to the open circuit (maximum volta... |
| point-contact cell | A high efficiency silicon photovoltaic concentrator cell that employs light trapping techniques and point-diffused contacts on the rear surface for current collection. |
| multijunction device | - A high-efficiency photovoltaic device containing two or more cell junctions, each of which is optimized for a particular part of the solar spectrum.
- A high‐efficiency photovol...
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| iii-v cell | A high-efficiency solar cell made from materials including group iii and group v elements from the periodic table. |
| thin film | - A layer of semiconductor material, such as copper indium diselenide or gallium arsenide, a few microns or less in thickness, used to make photovoltaic cells.
- A film one molecule thi...
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| intrinsic layer | - A layer of semiconductor material, used in a photovoltaic device, whose properties are essentially those of the pure, undoped, material.
- A layer of semiconductor material, used in a...
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| energy imbalance service | A market service that provides for the management of unscheduled deviations in individual generator output or load consumption. |
| single-crystal material | A material that is composed of a single crystal or a few large crystals. |
| polycrystalline silicon | - A material used to make photovoltaic cells, which consist of many crystals unlike single-crystal silicon.
- Silicon used to manufacture photovoltaic panels which is made up of multipl...
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| ampere-hour (ah/ah) | A measure of the flow of current (in amperes) over one hour; used to measure battery capacity. |
| balancing area | A metered segment of the power system, maintained by a balancing area authority, that ensures the total of all electrical generation equals the total of all system loads. |
| dispatching (economic dispatch) | A method by which system operators decide how much output should be scheduled from plants. |
| edge-defined film-fed growth (efg) | A method for making sheets of polycrystalline silicon for photovoltaic devices in which molten silicon is drawn upward by capillary action through a mold. |
| dendritic web technique | - A method for making sheets of polycrystalline silicon in which silicon dendrites are slowly withdrawn from a melt of silicon whereupon a web of silicon forms between the dendrites and solidifi...
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| chemical vapor deposition (cvd) | - A method of depositing thin semiconductor films used to make certain types of photovoltaic devices. with this method, a substrate is exposed to one or more vaporized compounds, one or more of ...
химическое осаждение из паровой фазы (cvd); химическое покрытие паром; |
| physical vapor deposition | - A method of depositing thin semiconductor photovoltaic films. with this method, physical processes, such as thermal evaporation or bombardment of ions, are used to deposit elemental semiconduc...
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| czochralski process | - A method of growing large size, high quality semiconductor crystal by slowly lifting a seed crystal from a molten bath of the material under careful cooling conditions.
- A method of ...
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| amorphous semiconductor | - A non-crystalline semiconductor material that has no long-range order.
- A non‐crystalline semiconductor material that has no longrange
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| discharge factor | - A number equivalent to the time in hours during which a battery is discharged at constant current usually expressed as a percentage of the total battery capacity, i.e., c/5 indicates a dischar...
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| charge factor | A number representing the time in hours during which a battery can be charged at a constant current without damage to the battery. usually expressed in relation to the total battery capacity, i.e.... |
| flat-plate array | A photovoltaic (pv) array that consists of non-concentrating pv modules. |
| tracking array | - A photovoltaic (pv) array that follows the path of the sun to maximize the solar radiation incident on the pv surface. the two most common orientations are (1) one axis where the array tracks ...
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| fixed tilt array | A photovoltaic array set in at a fixed angle with respect to horizontal. |
| two-axis tracking | A photovoltaic array tracking system capable of rotating independently about two axes (e.g., vertical and horizontal). |
| inverted metamorphic multijunction (imm) cell | A photovoltaic cell that is a multijunction device whose layers of semiconductors are grown upside down. this special manufacturing process yields an ultra-light and flexible cell that also conver... |
| combined collector | - A photovoltaic device or module that provides useful heat energy in addition to electricity.
- A photovoltaic device or module that provides useful heat energy in
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| thin film photovoltaic module | A photovoltaic module constructed with sequential layers of thin film semiconductor materials. see also amorphous silicon. |
| photovoltaic-thermal (pv/t) system | A photovoltaic system that, in addition to converting sunlight into electricity, collects the residual heat energy and delivers both heat and electricity in usable form. also called a total energy... |
| pocket plate | - A plate for a battery in which active materials are held in a perforated metal pocket.
- A plate for a battery in which active materials are held in a perforated metal
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| copper indium diselenide (cuinse2, or cis) | - A polycrystalline thin-film photovoltaic material (sometimes incorporating gallium (cigs) and/or sulfur).
- A polycrystalline thin‐film photovoltaic
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| cadmium telluride (cdte) | - A polycrystalline thin-film photovoltaic material.
- A polycrystalline thin‐film photovoltaic material.
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| copper zinc tin sulfide/selenide (czts) | A polycrystalline thin-film photovoltaic material. |
| distributed generation | - A popular term for localized or on-site power generation.
- Essentially any generator which connects directly to the distribution (low voltage) electricity grid rather than the transm...
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| cleavage of lateral epitaxial films for transfer (cleft) | - A process for making inexpensive gallium arsenide (gaas) photovoltaic cells in which a thin film of gaas is grown atop a thick, single-crystal gaas (or other suitable material) substrate and t...
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