Questions tagged [solar-cells]
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Mott dengerate semiconductor as absorber in solar cell
Does dengerate semiconductor—which met the Mott criterion—serve any purpose as an absorber for the photovoltaic effect in solar cell applications?
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Barrier layer photovoltaic effect (BLPVE) and Bulk photovoltaic effect (BPVE)
Ferroelectric materials typically exhibit the bulk photovoltaic effect (BPVE). My question is that if a material taken as an absorber in a device which works on barrier layer photovoltaic effect (...
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Spectroscopy limited maximum efficiency (SLME) and Shockley-Queisser (SQ) limit for solar cell
Is it true that SLME values are always higher than those predicted by SQ limit? Furthermore, why is it practically challenging to achieve the SLME-predicted efficiency?
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Difference between photodiodes and avalanche photodiodes
I'd say I'm quite aware of how avalanche photodiodes work but I'm unsure of how usual photodiodes work respectively how they differ from each other.
Let's bring it down to: APDs are able to detect ...
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On a PV cell, why do electrons travel through the copper rather than through the PN junction?
thank you all for reading me!
I am currently reviewing the structure and working principles of a PV cell. I think I understand the following steps about how the PN junction is formed and what happens ...
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Underdamped and overdamped molecular vibrations
I am reading about the interactions between excitons and phonons in this article, and I came across the following equation for the underdamped component of the spectral density of the vibrational bath:...
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Exciton transport in a molecular chain
I'm currently reading this article about exciton transport across a chain of tightly bonded molecules each coupled to an intramolecular vibration of frequency $\omega_0$. It says that the Hamiltonian ...
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Why/If Cadmium Compounds are Used In Electronics Related to Light
So I've noticed that cadmium compounds show up quite a bit in electronics related to light. For example, cadmium telluride is apparently the most used material in solar panels aside from silicon. In ...
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How to measure spectral irradiance vs wavelength for sunlight?
I am currently working on a project where I need to measure the spectral irradiance over a submerged solar panel at different depths of water. But I do not really know what can be used to measure it. ...
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Indirect Bandgap Semiconductors vs Direct Bandgap Semiconductors
I have been looking into the foundational theory of solar cells, as a high school student. Due to this, a lot of the stereochemical and physical understanding I would need to specialise here ...
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How to calculate spectroscopy limited maximum effciency (SLME) of solar cell?
The SLME technique considers the absorption behavior of absorber material and thickness of its layer with a Fermi Golden rule approach to calculate the max possible efficiency that can be drawn from ...
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CCD potential well depth
For a while I've been curious about the design of charge coupled devices. All I can find about CCDs is more of a popular science junk that explains the operation principles but doesn't give any models ...
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Is it possible to boost solar panel output using wavelength shifting materials?
Solar panels only produce energy from a small section of the total wavelength spectrum of light. I believe some panels have a mirrored back to pass light through the solar panel a second time. Much of ...
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Energy production of solar panels in space with received light [closed]
If there were 47.1% efficient solar panels (the MJ concentrator cells created by the NREL) in space where there is no atmosphere, I want them to generate as much power as possible, so I would like to ...
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Shockley-Queisser limit calculations
I am working through the paper, Detailed Balance Limit of Efficiency of p-n Junction Solar Cells by Shockley & Queisser, for my own research with perovskite solar cells.
I am able to follow their ...
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Solar Cell Power
I'm interested in doing a rough approximation for a solar cell efficiency under different input spectrums.
I know the EQE of the cell and the IV curve under AM1.5 conditions (easy to find online).
I ...
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Where is the excess energy going to when a solar inverter is operating a photovoltaic (PV) panel away from the maximum power point (MPP)?
The MPP is the maximum power point of a solar panel and a PV inverter will typically try to find this MPP to yield the maximum energy ouput.
But sometimes it might be neccessary to operate the panel ...
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Getting top-of-atmosphere (TOA) irradiance from Bird solar model
I'm just getting acquainted with the Bird solar irradiance model after finding via pvlib-python.
From skimming the references, it looks like the Bird model does generate spectral atmospheric ...
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The tilting of solar cells and their efficiency
This is a thought experiment I am considering. It concerns putting solar panels on a flat roof. The question is whether one should tilt them. Whilst there are more mundane reasons for tilting them (eg ...
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Antireflection coating: does reflection that destructively interferes lead to more transmitted light?
I was watching some media on how solar cells work, and the description of the antireflective coating confused me.
According to this video and this Physics Asylum video, the antireflection coating is ...
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Responsivity of a photo detector
I have a pn junction diode of which responsivity (R = Photocurrent / optical power) is to be calculated. For this purpose i have 5 LEDs of various wavelengths (UV, RED, BLUE etc).
In this case, i ...
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What happens to the Fermi level of a metal/semiconductor under bias?
When a metal/semiconductor junction is placed under bias, the Fermi level of the semiconductor shifts horizontally up or down increasing or decreasing the potential barrier. I was wondering if this is ...
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What happens to electron, when we join two solar panel in parallel
When we add two solar panels in parallel then voltage will remain same but current will increase but what exactly happen to the electrons when current increases but voltage remains the same.
Also when ...
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Why are most solar panel rated at 12 volts or 24 volts? [closed]
Most solar panel come in 12 volts or 24 volts, why?
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Convert $\rm Lux$ to $\rm W/m^2$
I use four LED matrix (UV, green, red, blue) to irradiate a solar panel with an area of S at a distance. The matrix is located at a distance l from the solar panel. I want to plot the volt-ampere ...
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Will the heat generated from solar panel electricity eventually generate wind energy?
I'm curious about limits for extracting solar energy, but I never studied this stuff so I'm going to speculate a lot.
My first question deals with the things like wind energy. I assume this energy is ...
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Does a UV flashlight work to excite a solar panel to generate current in the same way natural sunlight would?
So I wanted to show some young kids solar panels. In the sunlight they work great, but obviously inside they won't work.
I wanted to ask if I bought an UV flashlight from amazon like here would this ...
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Tilted bifacial solar panels vs. flat monofacials in cloudy weather
Many articles on the internet hail the bifacials for their productivity during cloudy weather. But are they really any better than a flat monofacial solar panel?
FWIW, my setup is made of a 20° sloped ...
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What is the ideal amount of shade for a house with air conditioning and solar cells on the roof? [closed]
Considering a mid latitude (e.g. in Virginia), south facing, single family house with two stories, AC cooling and solar power on the roof:
What would be the ideal level / amount of shade for the house ...
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Possibility of combining photovoltaics and solar thermal energy
In a private setting, photovoltaics and solar thermal energy are often harvested on the home's roof and roof area is limited. So, I thought about combining both, i.e. mounting solar collectors ...
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What method of collecting concentrated solar energy is most suitable for a Dyson swarm?
A Dyson swarm is a collection of solar collector satellites around a star, capturing the majority of its light. Each solar collector is essentially a mirror. Each group of solar collector satellites - ...
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Maximum solar power on moon [closed]
What is the maximum power that could be generated by covering the moon in solar panels?
Assume the entire lunar surface is covered and that the currently most efficient solar panels are used.
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Bimolecular recombination: How can it be non-radiative for $e$-$p$ pair?
I have understood that the bimolecular recombination of electrons and holes can be radiative when they meet each other,
However, I also heard that there are defect sites that can accept electrons and ...
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How do anti-reflection coatings in solar cells make light stay inside a solar cell?
We know that silicon is too shiny to absorb incoming light that's why anti-reflection coating is needed to make the incoming light stay inside the cell.
However, the problem is, even though the cell ...
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Best latitude to harness solar power during June?
What is the best latitude at which to place a solar panel during the month of June? Assume for simplicity that any any given latitude there is a place without clouds or large mountains to obstruct the ...
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What is different in the morning sunlight so it doesn't produce as much electricity as at noon?
Consider I have a solar panel setup as in the above picture. The top sketch is sketching sun rays in the early morning around 6 AM in a clear bright sky. The bottom sketch is sketching the sun ray ...
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Light-driven Carnot engine
Based on the definition of the Carnot engine, it is reversible, runs in a cycle, and is frictionless, which would result in the conclusion that the Carnot engine is the most efficient engine. The ...
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Thermodynamic efficiency limit of solar cells instead of Shockley–Queisser limit
I am considering the efficiency limit of solar cells, at first, it occurs to me that there should be a thermodynamic efficiency limit and try to reduce the entropy production as much as possible, just ...
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Is a photovoltaic powered air conditioner neutral to global warming?
Is my assumption correct, that
Power generated by photovoltaic solar panels reduces heat energy
from the sun (according to the PV cell efficiency of around 20%) on
the area they cover
An A/C ...
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Why does the voltage of a solar panel change as the tilt angle changes?
I performed an experiment where I linked a solar panel to a constant resistance, and took readings of the voltage and current every 10 minutes between 11:00 and 18:00. I performed this for 0, π/6, ...
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Does a 1m2 solar panel really provide more power than 1l/s of water falling 1m?
I'm trying to develop an intuition for small scale power, in the context of off-grid power.
Are these sums correct?
A 10% efficient solar panel, of one square meter, with incident 1kW sunlight, will ...
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Why does higher temperature lead to lesser efficiency of photovoltaic cells?
I have understood that band gap decreases but why does that decrease lead to lower efficiency?
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Why are polycrystalline solar cells shinier than monocrystalline solar cells?
Being shiny reduces the efficiency of the solar cells. Additional to the grain boundaries that polycrystalline solar cells have that gives resistance to the current flowing in them, they are shinier ...
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Is silicon a semiconductor or insulator?
I have read that pure crystalline silicon is an insulator because it has a such covalent bond that very tight and no free electrons available for conduction bands. They all are bonded with other ...
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Does open-circuit voltage decrease when resistance increases in a solar cell?
In a solar cell, if resistance were to somehow increase (maybe heating up the panel), would that contribute in any meaningful way in decreasing the open-circuit voltage?
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Why are monocrystalline solar cells more efficient than polycrystalline solar cells?
What causes monocrystalline silicon to be more efficient than polycrystalline silicon in the production of a solar cell?
I have read this answer on Reddit:
In general, single crystal is always better ...
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Why do solar cells need to be square-shaped? [closed]
There were circular solar cells 30 years ago. Why do we have square-shaped solar cells now? Why square?
Furthermore,
Why do monocrystalline solar cells have rounded/cropped edges?
Taken from: https://...
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How do solar panels lose efficiency and die over time?
Why do solar panels have a limited amount of lifespan? What goes wrong in them by the time passes? What changes happen in them that causes it to lose efficiency? What are the factors?
It seems to me ...
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In a solar farm why isn't there a single gigantic solar panel across all the farm surface, rather than small individual separate panels? [closed]
Why don't we just cover all the farm surface with one solar panel? Why is there a necessity for making separate but multiple panels rather than one large panel that covers the whole necessary space?
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What is the physical explanation behind the decrease of open circuit voltage as temperature increases in an amorphous solar PV cell?
I have researched and looked at several papers describing the effect of temperature on the $I_{sc}$ and $V_{OC}$, and seen many numerical explanations as to why the voltage drops, with reference to I-...
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