Solar Panel Surface Area Experiment

Use a ruler to measure the active area a of your solar cell see photo below.

Solar panel surface area experiment.

This relationship is not uniform though. Have you ever wondered if diodes conduct current induced by light. I don t know exactly how this effect will vary across panel types and sizes but if you re looking for a ballpark figure i d bet that 5 shading is bad news for most panels. 1000 watts total area x 1000 watts m 2 x 0 18.

Our panels turn off with 131 25 sq in. So solar panels are made of silicon diodes are made of silicon. That s a shadow covering 4 52 of the panel s total area. 1000 wattsm 2 is typically defined as the standard solar irradiation.

We know the required total output power is 1000 watts 10 panels x 100 watts the solar irradiance for a surface perpendicular to the sun s rays at sea level on a clear day is about 1000 watt m 2 and the conversion efficiency is 18. That is the performance isn t reduced by half if you cover half of the panel. Thus the output for each solar panel in your array would. Of shadow on a panel with 2906 sq in.

When sunlight enters a pv cell the light can separate an electron from an atom and the electric field helps move the electrons to charge collecting areas. How much energy does a solar panel produce. At the surface near the earth s equator 1000 wattsm 2 is typical when the sun is directly overhead. Plugging these number in the above equation we get.

The smaller the surface area the lower the power output of the solar panel. A 5cm 5cm 25cm 2 0 0025m 2. 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.

A b figure 2. 2 record the results in table 1. 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. Make a solar panel using diodes.

Sure you have and so have i so let s experiment and make a solar panel using 1n4148 run of the mill diodes. 1 measure the length and width of the solar cell with a vernier caliper and find its surface area. The cell in this experiment measured 5 cm by 5 cm. There is a relationship between the surface area of the solar panel and its generated output or performance.