09-107B Honors Chemistry Carnegie Mellon University

Homework 1: Solar Energy Part 1

Due: Friday, Sept. 8, 2017

Name_________________________________

Homework 1 is worth 10 pts, with this part (part 1) being 5 pts.

Please put your answers and explanations into this word document and either hand in a printed copy or
upload to canvas. (We will post instructions on how to upload on Piazza.)

The following set of questions explores the challenges associated with widespread use of solar
energy. We start by considering how big a solar cell would need to be to power the US. We then
explore two factors that need to be considered in designing a solar cell. The first is the need to
absorb many different wavelengths of light. The second is that the solar cell must last for a long
time in direct sunlight.

1) (2 pts) Estimating the size of a solar panel that could power the US
Given the following:
- On an average day, the peak electrical energy needs of the United States are ~1000 GW
(G is the metric prefix for 109, so a GW = 109 Watts = 109 Joules/second)
- In the Arizona desert, the total amount of solar energy reaching the ground is about 103
W/m2.
a) Consider building a solar plant in the Arizona desert to meet the peak power needs of the
United States. The plant will be a square patch of solar panels, each of which is 100% efficient at
converting energy from the sun into useable energy. What is the length, in km, of a side of the
patch (e.g. is it 1 km by 1 km, or 10,000 km by 10,000 km)?
b) Unfortunately, only about 15% of the energy reaching a typical solar panel is converted to
usable energy. What does this do to your estimate for the size of the solar plant?
c) The current market price for a 15% efficient polycrystalline silicon solar panels is $300/m2.
How much would it cost to build the panels for this plant? For context, the Gross National
Product (GNP) is about 17 trillion dollars and $1.2 trillion dollars is spent on energy each year?

2) (1 pt) Solar panels need to absorb broad-band radiation

09-107B Honors Chemistry Carnegie Mellon University

The above chart shows the solar power coming from the sun, as a function of the wavelength of
the light. The total area under this curve is about 1000 W/m2, this represents the total amount of
solar energy reaching the earth.

Suppose you had a solar panel that only absorbed, and converted to energy, light in the range
of 500 to 510 nm. Suppose it is 100% effective at converting light with these wavelengths to
useable energy. Estimate (to within about ±10% error) the efficiency of the solar cell. Here,
efficiency is defined as the total amount of solar energy hitting the earth that is converted to
useable energy. (For this calculation, you will need to estimate the area under the above curve
between 500 and 510 nm. One way to do this estimate is to replace the area under the curve
with a rectangle that has approximately the same area.)

3) (2 pts) Solar panels need to last a long time in direct sunlight

Another important issue in solar cell technology is the durability of the materials. The current
material used in solar cells is silicon, which is readily available, but expensive to process.
Organic dye molecules also have potential uses in solar cells, but lifetime is an issue. (For
example, putting a red t-shirt in the desert sun will cause it to fade as the dye molecules get
destroyed by the light.) Every time a molecule absorbs a photon, there is a chance it will
degrade. Consider a dye that can absorb about a billion photons before decaying. Here, you will
estimate the lifetime a solar cell based on such a dye.

We will assume the following:

09-107B Honors Chemistry Carnegie Mellon University

- The solar cell has a single layer of molecules. Each molecule occupies a square patch
that is 20Å x 20Å. (1 Å = 1 Angstrom = 10-10 m)
- The molecule absorbs every photon that hits the molecule and that has a wavelength
between 500 and 510 nm. (You may use the average wavelength of 505 nm to calculate
the energy of each of these photons.)
- The average number of photons the molecule can absorb before decomposing is 109.

With the above assumptions, how long would the solar cell last?