Solar Panel Absorbsion Frequency

 Hi All.

Does anyone know what solar radiation frequencies are absorbed by
solar panels?
Do SolarThermal panels absorb the same frequencies as SolarPV?

Am curious about Solar energy.

Take care.

Mike

  AC Me wrote:

| Does anyone know what solar radiation frequencies are absorbed by
| solar panels?

I'm not sure what frequencies are useful for PV panels. For heating
panels it depends on the glazing used and the design of the absorber.

| Do SolarThermal panels absorb the same frequencies as SolarPV?

For heating panels, you want to capture the energy of the widest
possible range of frequencies (see the web page at the link below). I
would guess that PV panels can't make use of as wide a range as
heaters.

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/Absorber.html

 The new experimental hi effciency PV panels have three layers, each
doped/tuned to a different region like IR, UV, visible. PV panels have
significant output even on cloudy days, so they are sensitive in the
IR range as well as visible.

 BobG wrote:

| The new experimental hi effciency PV panels have three layers, each
| doped/tuned to a different region like IR, UV, visible. PV panels
| have significant output even on cloudy days, so they are sensitive
| in the IR range as well as visible.

Interesting! I've carefully maintained a "tunnel vision" while doing
development of passive air heating panels - not because I've missed
the value of photovoltaics, but because I needed to not allow the
distraction to interfere. :-)

I wasn't aware of this development, and would like to learn more - do
you have links to specs, products, and/or experimental results? I've
had customers ask about PV panels, and these sound like something
worth suggesting - or are they still too new?

I'd like to say that I intended to become a PV user, but just don't
see PV as a solution to powering my shop's heavy woodworking tools.
:-(

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/

 Morris Dovey wrote:

They're not exactly new, but with one exception they're generally far
too expensive to use anywhere but in space. As far as commercial
terrestrial products go, check out Unisolar's triple-junction amorphous
silicon cells. To my knowledge, though, they've never been able to get
the benefits in production that they see in the lab, and listed stable
efficiencies aren't much higher than their single junction amorphous
cells. The ones built for space work as advertised, but use much more
stable (and expensive) materials than amorphous silicon.


I don't think it's a matter of whether it can do it, but whether it can
do it at a price you're willing to pay (though I suspect that's what you
meant).