GD GOENKA SCHOOL

VARANASI

PHYSICS PROJECT

Topic: “Conversion of Solar Energy into

Electrical energy.”

Name: Aarav Kumar Roy

Class: XII Science

Roll No:

Subject: Physics

Submitted by: Submitted to:

Aarav Kumar Roy Pradeep Kumar Verma Sir
 Certificate
To whomsoever it may concern

I have great pleasure in forwarding the Physics

project entitles "Conversion of Solar Energy into
Electrical Energy" submitted by Aarav Kumar Roy
of Class 12".

Aarav Kumar Roy has prepared this investigatory

project in accordance with the guidelines formed by
CBSE and has worked as per my instructions and I
certify that the project is unique and has not been
copied from any other source.

I wish him every success in his future endeavours.

Date: Mr. Pradeep Kumar Verma Sir

(Supervisor)
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to convey my sincere gratitude to

Pradeep Kumar Verma Sir. Physics Teacher who
gave his valuable advice and superb guidelines
for completion of my project. He helped me to
understand the important details of my project
which would otherwise have not been possible.

I am also grateful to my friends for boosting my

moral and offering me mental support.

Last but not the least, I extend my sincere thanks

to my classmates and the lab assistant who
played an important role while performing the
experiment.

By – Aarav Kumar Roy

 Index
S.No. Particulars & Project Content Page No.

1. Introduction

2. Photovoltaic

3. Solar Cell

4. Environmental Effect of
Photovoltaic

5. Application

6. Bibliography
 Introduction
Solar Energy is considered as one of the most
sustainable, abundant, unlimited, and clean
energy resources to mankind which can provide a
greener path to fulfil the global energy demands
of our modern society. The recent advanced
renewable energy conversion and storage
technologies have been led to continue growths in
order to meet our future energy demands without
any harmful emissions. Several technologies have
already been developed and demonstrated on the
efficient utilization tapping the solar energy
which is further converted into green energy.
 Solar cells (Photovoltaic
PV) for harvesting energy
from sunlight have
extensively been
investigated and also
commercialized because of
high power conversion
efficiency, low cost, and custom design. However, the
output power from PV is fluctuating owing to the
intermitted nature of the solar irradiation, which
obstacles the practical incorporation of this technology
for continuous applications. The self-powering
integrated solar cells and electrical energy storage
devices could be an alternative to resolve this problem
via simultaneous electric energy storage and
manipulation of the output electric energy for
continuous energy supply and utilized on demand. In
order to address this integration of solar energy
conversion and electrical energy storage into single
compact devices with low weight, self-powering and
efficient devices has already been made and
demonstrated. It is also observed that the integration
of solar cells with electrical energy storage unit not
only realizes solar energy cells with electrical energy
storage unit fluctuation of solar irradiation as out
power source.
 Super capacitors(SCs)
and lithium batteries
(LiBs) as electrical
energy storage devices
are extensively utilized
not only for powering
several portable electronic devices but also for plug
in hybrid electric vehicles. Among these SCs showed
outstanding potential as compared with LiB because
of their high power, long cycle life and long term
stability SCs are commercially available but their
widespread usage is restricted by their high cost and
low energy density. These drawbacks can be
mitigated by developing a new class of high
performance carbon electrodes which consist of a
combination of materials produced from abundant
cheap and environmentally friendly resources with
low processing costs. SCs with aqueous electrolytes
have received much research attention since they are
safer, cheaper and more environmentally friendly
when compared with organic electrolytes.
 The earth receives 174,000
terawatts of incoming
solar radiation (isolation)
at the upper atmosphere.
Approximately 30% is
reflected back to space
while the rest is absorbed by clouds, oceans and land
masses. The spectrum of solar light at the Earth's
surface is mostly spread across the visible and near
infrared ranges with a small part in the near
ultraviolet. Most people around the world live in
areas with isolation levels of 150 to 300 watt per
square meter or 3.5 to 7,0 kWh/m² per day.
 Photovoltaic

Photovoltaic (PV) is the name of a method of

converting solar energy into direct current electricity
using semiconducting materials that exhibit the
photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon commonly
studied in physics, photochemistry and
electrochemistry. The photoelectric effect from
which a second electrochemical process take placed
involving crystallized atoms being ionized in a
series generating an electric current. Power
generation from solar PV has long been seen as a
clean sustainable energy technology which draws
upon the planet's most plentiful and widely
distributed renewable energy resource the sun. The
direct conversion of sunlight to electricity occurs
without any moving parts or environmental
emissions during operation. It is well proven, as
photovoltaic systems have now been used for fifty
years specialized applications, and grid connected
PV mass produced in the years 2000, when German
environmentalists including Euro Solar succeeded.
obtaining government support for roof programs.
Driven by advances in technology and increases in
manufacturing scale and sophistication, the cost of
photovoltaic has declined steadily since the first
solar cells were manufactured.
 Solar Cells

Photovoltaics are best known

as a method for generating
electric power by using solar
cells to convert energy from
the sun into a flow of
electrons. The photovoltaic effect refers to photons
of light transduced light energy Virtually all
photovoltaic devices are some type of photodiodes.

Solar Cells produce direct current electricity from

sun light which can be used to power equipment or
to recharge a battery. The first practical application
of photovoltaic was to power orbiting satellites and
other spacecraft but today the majoring of
photovoltaic modules are used for grid connected
power generation. In this case an inverter is required
to convert the DC to AC. There is a smaller market
for off grid power for remote dwellings, boats,
recreational vehicles.
Photovoltaic power generation employs solar panels
composed of a number of solar cells containing a
photovoltaic material. Materials presently used for
photovoltaic include monocrystalline silicon,
polycrystalline silicon, amorphous silicon,
Cadmium Telluride, and copper indium gallium
selenide/sulphide. Copper solar cables connect
modules (module cable), arrays (array cable), and
sub fields. Because of the growing demand for
renewable energy sources, the manufacturing of
solar cells and photovoltaic arrays has advanced
considerably in recent years.

Photovoltaic power capacity is measured as

maximum power output under standardized test
conditions (STC) in "W," (Watts peak). The actual
power output at a particular point in time may be
less than or greater than this standardized or "rated"
value, depending upon geographical location, time
of day, weather conditions and other factors, Solar
photovoltaic array capacity are typically under 25%,
which is lower than many other industrial sources of
electricity.
 Environmental impacts of
Photovoltaic Technologies
PV technologies have shown significant progress
lately in terms of annual production capacity and
life cycle environmental impacts of such
technologies. The different PV technologies show
slight variations in the emissions when compared
the emission from conventional energy technologies
that replaced by the latest PV technologies with the
up scaling of thin film module production for
meeting future energy needs, there is a growing
need for conducting the life cycle assessment (LCA)
of such technologies to analyse the future
environmental impacts resulting from such
technologies. The manufacturing processes of solar
cell involve the emissions of several toxic,
flammable and explosive chemicals, Lately, in the
field of photovoltaic research there has been a
continual rise in research and development efforts
focused on reducing mass during cell manufacture.
Such efforts have resulted in reducing the thickness
of solar cells and this the next generation solar cells
are becoming thinner and eventually risks of expose
are reduced nevertheless, all chemicals must be
carefully maintained.
There has been a significant progress in the
published literature on LCA of thin film PV
technologies. Research groups are applying life
cycle assessment approach to emerging PV
technologies in order to facilitate a robust
comparison of emerging next generation thin film.
 Applications
 Solar PV System
A photovoltaic system, solar PV system is a
power system designed to supply usable solar
power by means of photovoltaics, It consists of
an arrangement of several components,
including solar panels to absorb and directly
convert sunlight into electricity, a solar inverter
to change the electric current from DC to AC, as
well as mounting, cabling and other electrical
accessories PV Systems range from small, roof
top mounted or building integrated system
with capacities from a few to several tens of
kilowatts, to large utility scale power stations of
hundreds of megawatts. Nowadays, most PV
systems are grid connected while stand alone
systems only account for a small portion of the
market.

 Concentrator Photovoltaics
Concentrator Photovoltaics (CPV) is a
photovoltaic technology that contrary to
conventional flat plate PV systems uses lenses
and curved mirrors to focus sunlight onto small,
 but highly efficient, multi junction(MJ) solar
cells. In addition, CPV systems often use solar
trackers and sometimes a cooling system is
further increase their efficiency. Ongoing
research and development is rapidly improving
their competitiveness in the utility scale segment
and in areas of high solar insolation.

 Photovoltaic thermal hybrid solar collector

Photovoltaic thermal hybrid solar collector
(PVT) are systems that convert solar radiation
into thermal and electrical energy. These
systems combine a solar PV cell. which converts
sunlight into electricity, with a solar thermal
collector, which captures the remaining energy
and removes waste heat from the PV module.
The capture of both electricity and heat allow
these devices to have higher energy and thus be
more overall energy efficient than solar PV or
solar thermal alone.

 Power Stations
Many utility scale solar farms have been
constructed all over the world. As of 2015, the
579 megawatt(MWac) Solar star is the world's
largest photovoltaic power station, followed by
 the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm and the Topaz
Solar Farm, both with a capacity of 550 MWac
constructed by US company First solar using
CdTe modules, a thin film PV technology. All
three power stations are located in the
Californian desert. Many solar farms around the
world are integrated with agriculture and some
use innovative solar tracking systems that follow
the sun's daily path across the sky to generate
more electricity than conventional fixed
mounted systems. There are no fuel costs or
emissions operation of the power stations.

 Telecommunication and signalling

Solar PV power is ideally suited for
telecommunication applications such as local
telephone exchange, radio and TV broadcasting,
microwave and other forms of electronic
communication links. This is because, in most
telecommunication application, storage batteries
are already in use and the electrical system is
basically DC. In hilly and mountainous terrain,
radio and TV signals may not reach as they get
blocked or reflected back due to undulating
terrain. At these locations, low power
 transmitters (LPT) are installed to receive and
retransmit the signal for local population.

 Spacecraft Applications
Solar panels on spacecraft supply power to run the
sensors active heating and cooling, and telemetry,
or the power is used for spacecraft propulsion
electric propulsion sometimes called solar electric
propulsion. Spacecraft operating in the inner solar
system usually rely on the use of solar panels to
derive electricity from sun light. One of the first
application of photovoltaic panels was on Earth
orbiting satellites, starting with the silicon solar
cells used on the Vanguard 1 satellite, launched by
the US in 1958. Since then solar power systems
have been used on a wide variety of missions. Solar
power has been used on missions ranging from the
power system for the messenger probe to Jupiter.
The largest solar power system flown in space is
the electrical system of the International Space
Station. To increase the power generated per
kilogram, typical spacecraft solar panels use high
cost, high efficiency and close packed rectangular
multi junction solar cells made of gallium arsenide
(GaAs) and other semiconductor materials.
 Bibliography
 Physics NCERT Class XII

 Wikipedia.org/wiki/photovoltaics

 Wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_energy

 www.technologystudent.com/energy/solar5.ht
m

 Energy.gov/cere/sunshot/photovoltaics

 Philadelphia's Solar Powered Trash Compactors

MSNBC(24 July 2009)