Ideas for a Senior Project (College) in Photovoltaics

[Moneer81]

Hello,

I am trying to come up with a good senior project for my physics degree. I am really interested in PV and I have spent a lot of time researching the literature and whatnot but haven't been able to come up with an original idea for a project. My first idea was improving the efficiency of a solar cell using some kind of a lens setup but many people around here assured me that it won't work. My professors aren't much help because not too many of them are very knowledgeable about solar technology and I don't feel like changing my project into something else completely different. Any suggestions on an experiment or a project I could do? I need to give a half hour presentation on it and write a report so it should be slightly detailed but it doesn't have to be real advanced. The goal is to show that I know how to perform an experiment, write a report, and present my findings, even if the experiment was a failure. That being said, I'd like to do something slightly original and challenging, or something that I could talk investigate its physics.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

[mneary]

Performing an experiment is not the same as making a practical product. Your project could be PV cells and how they respond to various stimuli, like concentrated light, elevated temperatures, etc. We've suggested earlier that a PV cell under a lens would have trouble with the extra heat. You may find that a heat sink or IR filter mitigates this somewhat. How much? Why? Can you find some physical parameters to explain the effects? Most of us believe that illuminating a small area would produce little output and could the cell, but nobody said how much or why.. you could experiment.

 

[rjvh]

do you have a budget to make a set up ??

how much time do you have to make the set up, do observations on it and tweek it so you can write in your raport what does influence, why and how much ??

Robert-Jan