Photon Number Hitting Solar Panel

Due to their special structure and the materials in solar cells the electrons are only allowed to move in a single direction.

Photon number hitting solar panel.

Photon flux is an important concept in solar energy. What happens when the photons hit the solar panels. The spectral response is conceptually similar to the quantum efficiency. 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. 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. The average visible light photon has about 3 3 x 10 19 joules of energy. The photon s energy is also absorbed by the electron.

A watt is a joule per second. Photons in sunlight hit the solar panel and are absorbed by semi conducting materials. As the next diagram shows panels like everything else are made up of atoms and atoms contain electrons. 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. Looking at the big picture conservation of momentum implies that the momentum of the photon ultimately contributes to the momentum of earth. So tear down that solar panel or we ll be pushed out of orbit nb. When a photon hits an electron the photon is absorbed by the electron.

That would suggest by dividing power by energy per photon that there would be about 3 x 10 18 photons per second. A spectral response curve is shown below. Electrons negatively charged are knocked loose from their atoms as they are excited.