Energy Output Of A Solar Panel Experiment

Calculating the power of a solar cell.

Energy output of a solar panel experiment.

Using photovoltaic cells also called solar cells solar energy can be converted into electricity. A solar cell efficiency test circuit diagram b experimental set up 3 place the desk lamp on top of the solar panel. 5 hours x 290 watts an example wattage of a premium solar panel 1 450 watts hours or roughly 1 5 kilowatt hours kwh. For the sake of example if you are getting 5 hours of direct sunlight per day in a sunny state like california you can calculate your solar panel output this way.

Solar cells produce direct current dc electricity and an inverter can be used to change this to alternating current ac electricity. 4 measure the distance from solar cell to the desk lamp with a ruler. This experiment was able to determine if the amount of dust on a solar panel affects the power output and it did find that the amount of dust does affect the power output. Good solar sites usually have greater than 2500 kwhm 2 of power available per year.

Dividing this number by 365 yields about 6 8 kwhm 2 of power per day the above data shows that there is significant power available in solar energy. 5 connect the circuit as shown in the figure below. Your experiment will measure the effect of changing light intensity on power output from the solar cell. Solar energy can be part of a mixture of renewable energy sources used to meet the need for electricity.

In our experiment the solar cell and motor had v 1 1 volts and i 0 11 amps. Experiments show dramatic increase in solar cell output. Adjust the distance to 0 15 m and turn on the desk lamp. The difficulty lies in converting it efficiently and cheaply.

The power of a solar cell is the product of the voltage across the solar cell times the current through the solar cell. How much energy does a solar panel produce. Method for collecting two electrons from each photon could break through theoretical solar cell efficiency limit. This is the total sunlight power that a square meter of land will receive in one year.

With this project you can get down to the atomic level and learn about the world of solid state electronics as you investigate how solar cells work. Thus the output for each solar panel in your array would. If the solar panel is exposed to the maximum light intensity available it will output the most voltage it can at that moment. While conventional silicon cells have an absolute theoretical maximum efficiency of about 29 1 percent conversion of solar energy the new approach developed over the last several years by researchers at mit and elsewhere could bust through that limit potentially adding several percentage points to that maximum output.

Solar panels with tracking systems that tilt rotate the solar panel towards the sun are applying the very basic observation we saw in the experiment.