GEOL 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Photovoltaics, Electric Current, Solar Irradiance
21 Sep 2020
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Lots of types being studied to help reduce fossil fuels use. No one source will provide all our energy needs. No magical material" that comes without any drawbacks. Capture all the sunlight for 1 hour = a year"s supply of energy. Use mirrors to collect sunlight and reflect it towards sunlight directly into a current (electricity) Use mirrors to focus/reflect sunlight onto a receiver. Receiver that collects the sunlight and causes electrons in the semiconductor to flow. Constantly improving: 46% is the record for efficiency. Use around 7. 5% of the sahara desert as solar farms = provide half the world"s energy needs. Also very expensive but efficiency is an ok assumption. Amount of time it will take to generate the amount of energy it took to build your energy collector. Since 2000 solar"s epb has dropped to 2-3 yrs (small = good) Flowing water used to turn turbines that generate electricity.
