Photovoltaics Definition and 19 Threads

I have read myself through a lot of information on photovoltaics. Yet I still don't understand how it really works. From what I think I understand, the charge separation in PN junctions happens due to an electric potential build up in the depletion zone. Now according to a wikipage on organic...

Can you use infrared solar panels to power a ham radio and turn infrared into radio waves to get the energy past the green house gases? Because infrared gets reflected by greenhouse gases and warms the Earth while radio waves don't. Would this help cool the Earth?

From the ideal diode model, we can derive the open-circuit voltage (Voc) as: $$ V_{oc} = \frac{nkT}{q} ln(\frac{I_L}{I_0} + 1) $$ where ##I_0## is the dark saturation current and ##I_L## is the light generated current. From the model, if the recombination rate increases, the dark saturation...

I'm a physics student and science fiction writer, and I've never been to this section of PF before! But I have an idea I think is cool for a novel or short story and I'd like some input on the physics involved. As I'm not overly worried about this idea being stolen I'm going to provide a short...

I have a somewhat different question to the usual sort asked. In the literature on photovoltaics numerous authors, both academic and popular refer to an Audobert and Stora who in 1932 observed the photovoltaic effect in either CdS or CdSe, depending on the author, however no citation is given...

Hi, I'm having some trouble wrapping my head around some of the concepts and language of charge transport in Photovoltaic cells (and thus pn-diodes). My biggest problem is understanding the role played by the emitter region vs. the depletion region. In a typical PV cell the front emitter...

I have a very simple question about solar photovoltaic systems. We all know that they have limited efficiency. Suppose there is a module that is 10% efficient i.e. it can convert 10% of sunlight falling onto it into electricity. I just want to know what will happen to the rest 90%? I mean do...

i want a list of books related to photovoltaics specifically the ones related to the mechanism

Hi, I'm familiar with the expression for calculating the built-in voltage of a p-n junction. How can I find the maximum built-in voltage before the semiconductor becomes degenerate (i.e., a bad metal) if I only know the material and the intrinsic carrier concentration at a given temperature...

Greetings from Costa Rica. I have an M.A. in Physical Science and a B.S. in Physics from San Diego State University, California, USA. For my master's thesis, I built and tested a prototype "Ocean Wave Driven Air Pump" in the Scripps Oceanographic Institute in La Jolla, CA in 1970-1971. The test...

The idea of a parabolic mirror to focus light onto a small solar panel popped into my mind the other day. I searched Google and this is about the best thing I found- http://www.greenrhinoenergy.com/solar/technologies/pv_concentration.php and...

I'm reading a paper on photovoltaic hydrogen production and the author claims that for reasonable solar efficiencies the band gap must be less than 2.0eV. This I understand. My question is how will it effect the photon absorption if the band gap is much smaller. Say the band gap energy is...

Hello everyone ! I have a very basic question about phovoltaics: does a photovoltaic solar cell need to be current to work ? I mean it sounds stupid since we use solar cell to produce current and not the opposite... The fact is I do not really understand how the cell produces current, I was...

Hello. I want to work with Photovoltaics and with the renewable industry. Electric motors, boats, cars. Is EE a good choice? I was thinking first in ME but looks like you see more of solar energy in EE. Please i need urgent advice i only left like 2 moths to make a choice.

Hey all, First off, thks to everyone here on physicsforums, this is such a great resource for anything physics-related. I was thinking today about the photoelectric effect, and a scenario popped into my head which seemed counter-intuitive. Please correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a while...

Hello, I am trying to come up with a good senior project for my physics degree. I am really interested in PV and I have spent a lot of time researching the literature and whatnot but haven't been able to come up with an original idea for a project. My first idea was improving the efficiency of...

Yes, I was wondering if anyone was, perhaps familiar with the industry of photovoltaic cells and how that industry is maturing. In particular, how efficient are the best cells available today. I would guess its measured in something like Watts/Surface Area, or some statistic like that...

Hey I got the oppurtunity to work in a research lab that focused on CadTel solar cells this summer and learned a fair deal about them, I also intend to take a class on Photovoltaics in the spring but I was just wondering how people feel about the cadmium in cadtel and would love some more...

Hey all, New guy on the site. Just to start off, I'm 15 year old who enjoys reading (mainly physics). Now, as many may already know, current crystaline silicon has been proven to have a total efficiency of 25%. Some companies have even quit on their thin film solar cell technology due...