Exploring Photovoltaic Solar Cell Efficiency with Different Wavelengths of Light

Overview

Objectives/Goals My project explored the relationship between different wavelengths of light and the output of solar panels. This is beneficial to society because it may provide an alternate way to produce more electricity for the growing world population. This project was designed to see if different wavelengths of light actually stimulated the solar cell to produce more energy. Methods/Materials This experiment was done by shining different wavelengths of light on solar panels and measuring their output by charging a battery and measuring its voltage. I made a graph to show the trend the data took and which one was better during the period of time I did my experiment. Results During my project I found that the first minute decided the three trends. When I finished performing my experiment, I found that the simulated visible light, the incandescent bulb, preformed the best and that ultraviolet preformed the worst. The infrared light generated a medium amount of energy. Conclusions/Discussion From my project I concluded that there is no apparent relationship between wavelength of light and the amount of charge generated by the solar panel. This could have happened because the generic solar panel is tuned to accept light from the sun, which is similar to incandescent light. This shows that if we used ultraviolet or infrared light to power solar panels, it would not be as effective as normal light.

Competition history

• CSEF 2008 Electronics & Electromagnetics · Entry J0822

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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