PV Gap

Rebecca Said:

physics; solar cell question. help?

We Answered:

Yikes, too many questions, sorry. The best way is to make a start on these problems, then ask people for help where you get stuck.

For the first one, look up Ohm's law in your book or online. The resistance R, is 10 ohms, and the voltage E, is 0.36. Plug that into Ohm's law, and solve for the current, I, in amperes.

Karl Said:

desperate plz help.................short?

We Answered:

Most conventional solar cells use visible and infrared light to generate electricity. The article below should explain all you need to know about solar cells. This looks like some kind of assignment question which means it might be somewhat out of date. The link details recent success in producing solar cells which operate at the ultraviolet end of the spectrum, so if this is the case then a filter would cripple the performance. If not, then depending on the bandwidth of the filter (film), it will affect the efficiency of the solar cells less. There is also a newer breakthrough in solar cells which use multiple band-gap materials which are effective across a wider range of frequencies. Again, if the filter imposes on any of these energies, then the solar cell will be reduced in performance, if not, then it will not be significantly affected. If this is an out-dated question which assumes that the cell operates at visible and infra-red wavelengths, then the "correct" answer is probably that the UV filter will not significantly affect the performance. (Although all films will have some infra-red blocking properties too).

I am also a little bit suspicious of the way that the question is posed, "(the film absorb below 300 nm)" - This is referring to nm which is nano-meters. When you say "below" 300 nm is this supposed to mean shorter or longer wavelengths? I suspect it means shorter otherwise it would block visible light too, so it would block 280 nm, 200 nm etc.