Photon Number Hitting Solar Panel

If we are interested in knowing how much power we can generate from a solar panel we need to determine the amount of photons that are hitting the surface of our panels at any given time flux is just a technical term that denotes a quantity passing through a given surface area.

Photon number hitting solar panel.

Photons in sunlight hit the solar panel and are absorbed by semi conducting materials. Looking at the big picture conservation of momentum implies that the momentum of the photon ultimately contributes to the momentum of earth. Enough energy from the sun hits the earth every hour to power the planet for a year sunlight is made up of tiny packets of energy called photons these photons radiate out from the sun and about 93 million miles later they collide with a semiconductor on a solar panel here on earth. Electrons negatively charged are knocked loose from their atoms as they are excited.

For more or less power multiply by the number of watts. In order to collect energy more efficiently solar panels should be angled to face as close to the sun as possible. The spectral response is conceptually similar to the quantum efficiency. Due to their special structure and the materials in solar cells the electrons are only allowed to move in a single direction.

The average visible light photon has about 3 3 x 10 19 joules of energy. What happens when the photons hit the solar panels. The quantum efficiency gives the number of electrons output by the solar cell compared to the number of photons incident on the device while the spectral response is the ratio of the current generated by the solar cell to the power incident on the solar cell. It all happens at the speed of light.

That would suggest by dividing power by energy per photon that there would be about 3 x 10 18 photons per second. Photovoltaics produce power when the angle at which the sun s rays hit the panel surface the angle of incidence is small or when light strikes the panel as close to perpendicular as possible. As the next diagram shows panels like everything else are made up of atoms and atoms contain electrons. So tear down that solar panel or we ll be pushed out of orbit nb.

We won t be pushed out of orbit as when we are pushed out to a larger orbit from the sun our angular velocity will be lowered increasing our acceleration back towards the sun. The photon s energy is also absorbed by the electron. Photon flux is an important concept in solar energy.