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    Homework 1: Solar Energy Part 1: Homework 1 Is Worth 10 PTS, With This Part (Part 1) Being 5 Pts

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    Ananya
    The document is a homework assignment for an honors chemistry class that explores challenges in widespread use of solar energy. It contains 3 questions: 1) Estimating the size of a solar panel needed to power the US, which would be over 10,000 square kilometers even with 100% efficient panels. Absorption rate and costs are also considered. 2) Calculating efficiency of a solar panel that only absorbs a narrow wavelength range, which would be around 5-10% efficiency. 3) Estimating the lifetime of a solar cell using organic dye molecules that can each absorb 1 billion photons before decaying, which would be around 3 months.

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    Homework 1: Solar Energy Part 1: Homework 1 Is Worth 10 PTS, With This Part (Part 1) Being 5 Pts

    Uploaded by

    Ananya
    35 views3 pages
    The document is a homework assignment for an honors chemistry class that explores challenges in widespread use of solar energy. It contains 3 questions: 1) Estimating the size of a solar panel needed to power the US, which would be over 10,000 square kilometers even with 100% efficient panels. Absorption rate and costs are also considered. 2) Calculating efficiency of a solar panel that only absorbs a narrow wavelength range, which would be around 5-10% efficiency. 3) Estimating the lifetime of a solar cell using organic dye molecules that can each absorb 1 billion photons before decaying, which would be around 3 months.

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    HW1a (1)

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    The document is a homework assignment for an honors chemistry class that explores challenges in widespread use of solar energy. It contains 3 questions: 1) Estimating the size of a solar panel needed to power the US, which would be over 10,000 square kilometers even with 100% efficient panels. Absorption rate and costs are also considered. 2) Calculating efficiency of a solar panel that only absorbs a narrow wavelength range, which would be around 5-10% efficiency. 3) Estimating the lifetime of a solar cell using organic dye molecules that can each absorb 1 billion photons before decaying, which would be around 3 months.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    35 views3 pages

    Homework 1: Solar Energy Part 1: Homework 1 Is Worth 10 PTS, With This Part (Part 1) Being 5 Pts

    Uploaded by

    Ananya
    The document is a homework assignment for an honors chemistry class that explores challenges in widespread use of solar energy. It contains 3 questions: 1) Estimating the size of a solar panel needed to power the US, which would be over 10,000 square kilometers even with 100% efficient panels. Absorption rate and costs are also considered. 2) Calculating efficiency of a solar panel that only absorbs a narrow wavelength range, which would be around 5-10% efficiency. 3) Estimating the lifetime of a solar cell using organic dye molecules that can each absorb 1 billion photons before decaying, which would be around 3 months.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    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?

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