PV Gap

Bruce Said:

Can a solar panel be powered by other sources of light than sunlight?

We Answered:

in principle yes
However, to produce the light intensity equal to sun radiation you'll need to invest so much more electricity that it is simply not economical. You loose twice, once the conversion efficiency of the light bulbs (amount of electrical energy converted to light) and second the efficiency of the photovoltaic panel. It might be that you invest 10 times more energy to produce the light than what you recover in back! http://www.solar-energy-for-home.com/off…

Julia Said:

Can a solar panel be powered by artificial light?

We Answered:

Years ago I saw LCD calculators powered by a small solar panel, which worked fine under a light bulb.

Silicon has a band gap of 1.12 eV, that means that Si is transparent for wavelenghts larger than 1.1 micrometers. Then most of the (infrared) light of the bulb will be wasted, but at least part of the energy will be converted.