Difference between revisions of "Solar cell"
| Line 19: | Line 19: | ||
== Irradiance == | == Irradiance == | ||
| + | |||
| + | Irradiance is the power delivered at a certin spot of the world at a certain time of year. This is the maximum of the possible energy to be harvested from a solar cell. Tables can be found at this page: http://solarelectricityhandbook.com/solar-irradiance.html | ||
== MPPT relation == | == MPPT relation == | ||
Revision as of 09:56, 30 April 2015
This page is under construction!!!
Intro
A solar cell is a complex device with many details under the hood. Studying a solar cell, optimizing the efficiency is high tech.
Deep Basics
The energy emerging from a solar cell is an effect which can be described with quantum mechanics. This means that it is complicated!
There is a very good lecture course online: [1]
Important figures and ideas which can be discovered in this course are:
The integrated power delivered on the surface of the Earth is 100 mW/cm2
But only wavelength shorter than 1.1Ev are absorbed: so this means only 44 mW/cm2 is possible at best. Why not "all" energy can be used is a quantum effect: this has to do with discontinuity in absorbing energy. Electrons, which catch the energy or send it out again do this in "jumps", not in a nice variable way.
Irradiance
Irradiance is the power delivered at a certin spot of the world at a certain time of year. This is the maximum of the possible energy to be harvested from a solar cell. Tables can be found at this page: http://solarelectricityhandbook.com/solar-irradiance.html
MPPT relation
The second lecture: [2] teaches the mechanisms behind the MPPT relation.