Solar cell
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
MPPT relation
The second lecture: [2] teaches the mechanisms behind the MPPT relation.