What is the highest efficiency of a solar cell? Why do solar cells have low efficiency? There are a few people who are turning to the power of the Sun in order to power their houses and establishments, deciding to go on natural. There are solar healing for pods and they could be used to gather energy, but the sun may or may not always be there. Here are some factors affecting solar power generation.
What are the four factors that affect the amount of solar energy Earth receives?
- Geographical Location
The earth is sphere shaped so the sun strikes the surface at different angles. They could go from just above the horizon at 0 degrees, to directly overhead at 90 degrees. The Earth’s surface would be able to get all of the energy as possible when the sun’s rays are vertical, but the more slanted the sun’s rays are, the more scattered and diffused they become because they would need to travel through the atmosphere longer. There are some areas of the world that receive no sun at all during part of the year, making it harder to collect solar energy.
- Time of the Day
Since the Earth revolves around the sun in an elliptical orbit, there are certain parts of the year where the Earth is closest to the sun. When this happens, the Earth’s surface receives more solar energy. There are parts of the day where the sun is directly on top of us, making us receive the most solar energy of the day compared to when the sun is about to set and when the sun is about to rise. This usually happens at around lunch time.
- Season
TheEarth is closer to the sun when summer hits in the southern hemisphere and in return, winter in the northern hemisphere, but because of all of the oceans around, it could moderate the hotter summers and colder hemispheres in the southern hemisphere.
There is a time in the year that the Earth’s axis would be tilted in a 23.5 degrees, giving the significant factor in determining the amount of sunlight that is striking the Earth at a particular location. This tilt would then result in longer days in the northern hemisphere from spring equinox to the fall equinox and would result in longer days in the southern hemisphere during the other 6 months.
Countries who lie in the middle latitudes, like the United States of America, receive more solar energy in the summer because of longer days and because the sun is nearly overhead. Cities like Denver, Colorado receive nearly three times more solar energy in June than they do in December.
- Local Weather and Local Landscape
Aside from where your city is located affects the amount of sunlight you receive, another factor you have to consider is your weather. If you live in a place where it always rains, then you are going to have a hard time collecting sunlight from your solar panels. If you live in a place where it is always sunny, then you are not gonna have a problem.
How can you increase the efficiency of a solar cell?
- Buy one of the more efficient solar panel models
Solar panels can’t transform all of the solar energy that it receives into electricity. The average solar cell efficiency has increased from 15 percent to 10 percent over the past 5 years but not all solar panels are created equal so you have to buy a more efficient solar panel. Though the initial cost would most likely be expensive, buying one would be important if you want to reap the best results.
- Avoid installing solar panels in shaded areas
In order to catch the most sunlight, you have to make sure that the position of your solar panel is placed in a place where they could get the most of it. If one of the photovoltaic cells is shaded, it could really impact the energy generated by the cells beside it.
- Buy panels with High Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) Cells
Buying solar panels that have CPV cells would really be a game changer, since CPV focuses on making sunlight onto an extremely high-efficiency solar cell. It could peak your panels at 22 percent efficiency and could reach to 46 percent.
- Get an expert to install your solar panels
There are some panels that you could install yourself, but it is definitely better to get an expert to install your solar panels because if one panel is not installed correctly, then they won’t receive the optimal amount of sunlight which would then result in generating less electricity.
Many people are starting to invest in their solar panels, all over the world, from households to commercial buildings. The efficiency of solar panels have improved the way we run out electricity over the years and using renewable energy would then reduce our carbon footprints and help our Earth in the long run. But there are some panels that are better than most, if you want to take advantage of your solar cells, you have to do further research on what the best panels are and make sure you do maintenance on them.