Solar cells?

Question

I've read before where the INTENSITY of the sun's rays matter w/ regard to the rate at which energy is created/stored using solar cells. Is this true? If I live in California or Arizona, isn't their exposure to the sun (based on intensity) greater than a person who lives in Arkansas or Oklahoma? Given this, I'm assuming that solar cells would be beneficial in the south, but it just may take longer....?

Answer 1

the problem with solar power is you would have to cover 1/3rd of the world in panels to create enough energy to power the world. that might hurt a spotted owl.

Answer 2

Correct. Some areas like Arizona get much more solar energy than places like Washington. The source is a "solar insolation" map of the United states. Solar insolation is basically the number of kilowatt-hours per square meter per day.

Answer 3

You need to find out how many "Sunlight Hours" you have in your area. that is the meassurment used, along with your electic use, to determine the size of your home's solar cells. Find cal. on the map and you would then know your Sunlight hours, or Intensity in your area.

Answer 4

youARE  write

Answer 5

There is more than one type of solar panel, I think you are talking about the photovoltaic panels, which are usually put on homes and businesses. They are usually stationary and can only create electricity when the sun is shining directly on them. A hotter climate doesn't increase output, it's the number of hours of direct sunlight.

There is another technology used to create electricity from solar rays on a larger scale. I put the link as a source.

Answer 6

nah, doesn't matter, in germany a country with less sunlight in a year comapared to the asian countires is the best solar country, and considering the fact that if we can only harness a day of solar in the world in a single day it could supply our needs for the whole year round

Answer 7

zildjian makes an important point. Germany is further North than the U.S. and it is the leading nation with solar panels because the government pays anyone to build them to make Germany free of foreign oil. Most of European electricity will soon be at least 30 Percent from the sun, solar cells and windmills.

But, like others noted, solar intensity sets the power output.

In the Mojave Desert some cells use curved mirrors to concentrate the solar rays and focus the intensity on the cell increasing power output. The additional mirror cost has proven to be justified and profitable by the increase in power output.

New distributed optimum concentrators are being tested to simplify construction, the concentrator is built-in with the cell.

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A related extension is that a new Israeli design found it was more cost-effective to increase the intensity so much that it could boil water and produce steam used to run a generator.

According to them, for applications greater than a few homes, this is competitive with large windmills and even cheaper. They are building two of them in Mojave Desert for PG&E.

Answer 8

well germany has lots of solar and they are close to the pole. sort of.

Answer 9

Do the math. Solar panels are from 12-15 watts a square foot, put up 1,000 sf and you get 12,000-15,000 watts an hour peak power.

What this does is pay off the investment in about 5-6 years in a place like Seattle, and half that in Arizona. So, intensity only matters to a degree, cloudy days have plenty of available power. I measured output with a cell and it was typically 80% of peak power on the average cloudy day.

After the investment is paid off you spin the dial in your favor and make money. Solar panels make the most sense used with the grid, selling to the grid at wholesale and buying it back at retail, this is how to compute the dollars involved.

The power companies don't want you to put that much on the roof because you become a generation station, small yes but if millions of homes do it, guess what? We won't need more power plants and there's no way that's fair to the monopolies of power so they won't help you at all doing it.

Most panels are 25-year guarantees and 60-knot wind load ratings, solar shingles aren't quite as efficient as panels but they are acceptable to HOA's when they don't like the look of panels.

So, it doesn't really matter where you live, panels can pay off by considering how to install them for best results and to put up enough to pay off the investment in a reasonable amount of time.

To assess your house, buy a single cell and multimeter and measure voltage on clear and cloudy days to get real numbers to work with. To estimate costs double the retail price of cells as a quick estimate of the installed price if a contractor does the work. Roll that expense into your home mortgage (it's about $35,000 give or take for 1,000sf).

How many cents a watt isn't a good measure to consider panels, you're after kilowatt-hours of power and most modern homes use about 30Kw a day, green houses use far less. If you're getting that in 2-3 hours at peak power, whatever they cost is being paid off with the rest of the day.

Keep in mind that power from the grid is being subsidized, the cost of storing nuclear waste is not included in the bill, we pay that whether we use the power or not since the current socialist government pays that with our taxes. The oil and coal industries are subsidized as well, part of corporate socialism to make power look cheap to users and burying the costs in taxation. If you include these socialistic subsidies the cost of grid power is not cheaper than 25-year panels.

Answer 10

Its very true that solar cell efficiency depends on the location where they are being used.  This is primarily because of the tilt of the Earths axis as well as seasonal changes.  Basically as you get closer to the poles the suns rays become more and more "spread" out because the land in those areas is facing away from the sun.  On average days are shorter closer to poles as well because, depending on the location, they may never fully face the sun even in full summer, where as the equator directly faces the sun all year long.  Weather can also have a big effect if you were to try and use solar cells in an area (Like Seattle WA) where its almost always cloudy.

However this is only one small problem that scientists are facing with solar cells right now.  Right now they only can use a small percentage of the solar energy available.  They are also extremely expensive compared to the amount of electricity they produce.

Answer 11

Let me start off by saying we (my family and I) live completely, 100% “off of the grid and are completely self sufficient”

The house is built utilizing natures natural elements, in the shape of an octagon with 8ft wide arch doors on every wall to catch every angle of wind (typical 4 sided homes have half the chance as one with 8 sides. A circle being the most efficient design). Woodburning stoves, solar chimney, solar AC, solar heating, solar water heating (pool and home), solar stove, solar power, wind power, hydrogen powered back up generator, hydrogen back up water heater, hydrogen stove, 2 hydrogen powered trucks, 1 EV (electric vehicle) and satellite internet.

There are no utility lines, no water lines, no roads, tv, cell service, etc. on our ranch. EVERYTHING needed is produced here. All electricity comes from 27 solar panels, 2 main wind gens and a back hydrogen generator if needed (typically we can last 9 days with all luxuries of sunless windless weather, hasn't happened yet). Water is caught and storaged from the rain. Hot water is made with solar batch water heaters with an on-demand hydrogen hot water heater as backup. Even our vehicles use alternative energy (2 hydrogen trucks, 1 EV electric vehicle converted). Because of this we have no bills, no debt and no mortgage.

The following steps were taking directly out of a DIY guide I offer to those who would like to run their homes on solar power safely, reducing their monthly utility bills or even selling power back the the electrical companies. The entire guide is available at www agua-luna com. Its pretty simple but if you have any problems feel free to contact me directly I can walk you threw the process.

Materials you will need

A sheet of copper flashing from the hardware store. This normally costs about $5.00 per square foot. We will need about half a square foot.

Two alligator clip leads.

A sensitive micro-ammeter that can read currents between 10 and 50 microamperes. Radio Shack sells small LCD multimeters that will do, but I used a small surplus meter with a needle.

An electric stove. My kitchen stove is gas, so I bought a small one-burner electric hotplate for about $25. The little 700 watt burners probably won't work -- mine is 1100 watts, so the burner gets red hot.

A large clear plastic bottle off of which you can cut the top. I used a 2 liter spring water bottle. A large mouth glass jar will also work.

Table salt. We will want a couple tablespoons of salt.

Tap water.

Sand paper or a wire brush on an electric drill.

Sheet metal shears for cutting the copper sheet.

The first step is to cut a piece of the copper sheeting that is about the size of the burner on the stove. Wash your hands so they don't have any grease or oil on them. Then wash the copper sheet with soap or cleanser to get any oil or grease off of it. Use the sandpaper or wire brush to thoroughly clean the copper sheeting, so that any sulphide or other light corrosion is removed.

Next, place the cleaned and dried copper sheet on the burner and turn the burner to its highest setting.

As the copper starts to heat up, you will see beautiful oxidation patterns begin to form. Oranges, purples, and reds will cover the copper.

As the copper gets hotter, the colors are replaced with a black coating of cupric oxide. This is not the oxide we want, but it will flake off later, showing the reds, oranges, pinks, and purples of the cuprous oxide layer underneath.

The last bits of color disappear as the burner starts to glow red.

When the burner is glowing red-hot, the sheet of copper will be coated with a black cupric oxide coat. Let it cook for a half an hour, so the black coating will be thick. This is important, since a thick coating will flake off nicely, while a thin coat will stay stuck to the copper.

After the half hour of cooking, turn off the burner. Leave the hot copper on the burner to cool slowly. If you cool it too quickly, the black oxide will stay stuck to the copper.

As the copper cools, it shrinks. The black cupric oxide also shrinks. But they shrink at different rates, which makes the black cupric oxide flake off.

The little black flakes pop off the copper with enough force to make them fly a few inches. This means a little more cleaning effort around the stove, but it is fun to watch.

When the copper has cooled to room temperature (this takes about 20 minutes), most of the black oxide will be gone. A light scrubbing with your hands under running water will remove most of the small bits. Resist the temptation to remove all of the black spots by hard scrubbing or by flexing the soft copper. This might damage the delicate red cuprous oxide layer we need to make to solar cell work.

Cut another sheet of copper about the same size as the first one. Bend both pieces gently, so they will fit into the plastic bottle or jar without touching one another. The cuprous oxide coating that was facing up on the burner is usually the best side to face outwards in the jar, because it has the smoothest, cleanest surface.

Attach the two alligator clip leads, one to the new copper plate, and one to the cuprous oxide coated plate. Connect the lead from the clean copper plate to the positive terminal of the meter. Connect the lead from the cuprous oxide plate to the negative terminal of the meter.

Now mix a couple tablespoons of salt into some hot tap water. Stir the saltwater until all the salt is dissolved. Then carefully pour the saltwater into the jar, being careful not to get the clip leads wet. The saltwater should not completely cover the plates -- you should leave about an inch of plate above the water, so you can move the solar cell around without getting the clip leads wet.

now place in the sun with the magnefied on top.

The solar cell is a battery, even in the dark, and will usually show a few microamps of current.

That’s it it’s that simple. If you’d a more detailed process and some pics (ouldn’t put them here) it’s available along with some other DIY alternative energy projects at  www agua-luna com

Hope this helped, feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions if you’d like assistance in making your first self sufficient steps, I’m willing to walk you step by step threw the process. I’ve written several how-to DIY guides available at  www agua-luna com on the subject. I also offer online and on-site workshops, seminars and internships to help others help the environment.

Dan Martin

Alterative Energy / Sustainable Consultant, Living 100% on Alternative & Author of How One Simple Yet Incredibly Powerful Resource Is Transforming The Lives of Regular People From All Over The World... Instantly Elevating Their Income & Lowering Their Debt, While Saving The Environment by Using FREE ENERGY... All With Just One Click of A Mouse...For more info Visit:  

www AGUA-LUNA com

Stop Global Warming!!!

Answer 12

yeah sure.......................................

Answer 13

You don't store electron's in a solar cell...it's just convert's the sun's energy to current.

Think about your original question...is the sun more intense earlier in the day that later?

Answer 14

Solar cells have come a long way with transforming sun into electricity. Still they only generate 12 to 24 v. DC. after battery storage you need an inverter to change 12- 24 V into AC power for household usage. Maybe suggest wind power in your area!!

Answer 15

Yes we get more sun, but that does not mean our solar cells make more energy. In fact less, as the panels get hot they produce less energy. That is one reason why I like concentrating solar for California and southern states. To learn more go to CoolingEarth.org