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James Cowell
History
First demonstrated by Edmond Becquerel, a French physicist.
He studied the solar spectrum,magnetism,electricityandoptics.
He discovered the photovoltaic effect, the operating principle behind
a solar cell.
The Becquerel prize is named after him, and awarded to people who
have excelled in the field of solar energy.
Edmond Becquerel
Global Warming!
Average temperatures could be between 3 and 9K
warmer than now by the end of the century.
This is caused by the greenhouse effect:
The Experiment
Calculating efficiency of the solar cell when different
wavelengths of light is incident upon it.
All the light energy arriving at the solar cell is not
converted into electrical energy, so there is an
efficiency.
It is almost the same as calculating the error in the solar
cell.
The Circuit
The Method
The
solar cell was placed at a fixed distance, 50cm, from the
lamp.
The power was calculated at this distance by measuring
getting a voltage output from a thermophile, and the
conversion was used.
Using the variable resistor resistance was change from 0-30 in
2 intervals, and then 30-80 in 5 intervals.
The voltage and currents and voltages were measured for each
value of resistance.
Different filters were placed over the solar cell and the method
was repeated.
Results
The power generated by the solar lamp can be
calculated by
The efficiency can be calculated by
is the maximum power generated across the
resistances.
Graphs of power against resistance are plotted to
calculated .
Calculations
With no filters the efficiency was
Red filter:
Blue filter:
Green filter:
Explanation
The initial power, was calculated with white light, so
when filters are used less photons will reach the solar
cell, decreasing and hence the efficiency.
But where does the difference in efficiencies come
from?