PV Gap

Billie Said:

please give me some advice to my experiment?

We Answered:

You may want to consider eliminating the sun from the experiment entirely. A much more controlled experiment would be to use a fluorescent lamp (probably with a compact fluorescent bulb) in a perfectly dark room to simulate the sun. Place the lamp at different angles, just like the sun changes. The benfit would be that you would always get a consistent amount of light, from the same location for each type of mirror. You won't get nearly as much current out of your solar panel, but hopefully it should still be measurable.

Alicia Said:

What's the most efficient method of micro- electricity generation?

We Answered:

Most efficient or most economical?

Wind is from thermal gradients in the atmosphere because different areas are warmed to a different extent by the sun. In this respect it's a terribly inefficient method of converting sunlight energy to electrical energy (much less than a fraction of 1%) but a wind turbine is inexpensive.

Solar photovoltaic used to have efficiencies of 5% to 15% but the current record is 42.8%. However, solar panels are expensive.

Currently, wind turbines are less expensive per watt then solar photovoltaics (photovoltaics are dropping in price fast). The problem is that your neighbourhood may not allow wind turbines due to the visual impact and the noise that they create.