LITTLE FLOWER HOUSE

KAKARMATTA,VARANASI

PHYSICS PROJECT
Topic: “Conversion of Solar Energy into
Electrical Energy.”
Name: Vaibhav Shukla__________________
Class: XII Science_________ _____________
Roll No: _______________________________
Subject: Physics________________________
Submitted by: Submitted to:
Vaibhav Shukla Mr.Neeraj Kr. Gupta
 Certificate
Little Flower House
Varanasi
To whomsoever it may concern

I have great pleasure in forwarding the Physics project entitles

“Conversion of Solar Energy into Electrical Energy”
submitted by Vaibhav Shukla of Class 12th.

Vaibhav Shukla 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 : 5 November 2019 Mr Neeraj Kr. Gupta

(Supervisor)
 Acknowledgement
I would like to convey my sincere gratitude to Mr.Neeraj Kr.
Gupta, 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 – Vaibhav Shukla
 Index
S.No Particulars & Project Content Page No.
 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 “Wp” (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 analyze 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 Systems
A photovoltaic system, or 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 to 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 sunlight.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/energy1/solar5.htm
 Energy.gov/eere/sunshot/photovoltaics
 Philadelphia’s Solar Powered Trash Compactors MSNBC(24
July 2009)