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Questions tagged [photovoltaics]

Questions about solar applications that make use of the photovoltaic effect, especially solar panel and thin-film technologies.

60 questions
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Do solar cells age? Why, and how?

As I heard, the life expectancy of photovoltaic cells is normally some decades, as so. This is very long, regarding their high cost, it has significant (negative) effect on the total costs. Why do they age? I can see the only possibility which could…
peterh
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Will more electricity be generated by using a lens to focus sunlight onto solar cells?

I have been wondering about this question for quite some time. Assuming an ideal case, the energy from photons hitting solar cells is converted into electric energy as described by the equation: $RI^2t=W\equiv E=\hbar\nu$ where $\nu$ is the…
TBBT
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Why isn't heatpump technology used for solar collector panels and boiler tanks?

All solar collector and boiler tank systems that I can find on the market use a liquid to circulate the heat between solar collector panels (or PVT panels) and boiler tanks. Is there a reason why they do not use expandable gas and a compressor…
Louis Somers
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Are there different solar panels for recapturing energy from household lighting?

I have been investigating recapturing energy from house lighting using solar panels. Are there solar panels specifically designed to capture indoor lighting with a higher efficiency? If so, what are the differences between the outdoor and indoor…
Mahendra Gunawardena
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Did I wire these solar panels correctly?

recently I bought 3 solar panels rated at 5V 200 mA each. I want to use them to charge a 5V battery bank to charge a phone. Thinking about the proper way to put them, I thought i can connect all in parallel to get maximum current, but realized that…
Nadim
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Is the fill factor of a photo-voltaic cell constant?

An important factor in specifying the efficiency of photo-voltaic (PV) cells is called the fill factor (FF). It is defined as the ratio of the maximum power of the cell to the product of the open-circuit voltage $V_{oc}$ to the short-circuit current…
Moody
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How can I add roof-mounted solar panels to a van without making it unstable at highway speeds?

We have an extended Chevy express with a 24" high-top, on which we intend to install roof-mounted PV. I'm really concerned with how to properly install the panels. We've selected six 100 W Renogy panels and a 400 Ah LiFePO4 battery pack, but it…
Liandri
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Can solar panels absorb heat for energy?

Solar panels can absorb sunlight and use it for energy, but can they absorb the heat that is generated from their use and use the heat for energy?
Rishi Kavikondala
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Any Idea of This China's "Transparent Concrete"?

I am currently make an attempt to make miniaturized version of this China's solar highway on my garage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK8FvzI3yDA Just so i can re-evaluate the performance However, I am curious with the top-most layer. In various…
talkingpandas
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Does this PID-like algorithm make any sense for a solar inverter?

The application I want to implement the control of a photovoltaic inverter. The goal would be to keep the consumption of a microgrid (the power absorbed from the grid) to a constant value. Notes: I can only measure the grid load and the PV inverter…
AF7
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8W Solar panel high amperage low voltage

I have to put together a small solar system for a college project. I have solar cells with an output of 3.65A and 0.6V. Now if I paralel two groups of two cells connected in series I will double the amps and volts. And the output power will be like…
Robert Ramsey
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Rotating Multiple Solar Panels with One Motor

I am designing a system to have solar panels track the sun, but only with one axis of rotation that will tilt the panels from east to west. I want to connect the panels together so that one motor could rotate multiple panels. I was thinking of a…
Alex K
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PV solar panel is producing more than is possible according to its datasheet?

I have a client in Belgium that has 16 DM400-M10-54HBB on his roof. On Saturday the 2nd of December 2023, the PV output was 3.95 kW, according to the log of the Huawei SUN2000 4.6KTL-L1 5 kVA inverter. This means 247 W per panel. This is the house,…
fromwastetowind
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Are two solars panels more efficient than only one of twice the power output?

Is there any advantage to use two 50 W solar panels in parallels instead of one 100 W panel? As we know, the effect of partial shadow on a solar panel can make the whole panel ineffective. We want to mitigate this effect by doubling the panels so…
Charles
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How large would a solar panel array need to be in order to supply all the world's energy?

This story from 2016 claims that all the world's energy needs could be supplied by covering 1% of the Sahara in solar PV panels. Was (is?) this true, and if not, how would you go about approximating the size of solar PV array needed to supply the…
tomh
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