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A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical phenomenon. It is a form of photoelectric cell, defined as a device whose electrical characteristics, such as current, voltage, or resistance, vary when exposed to light. Individual solar cell devices are often the electrical building blocks of photovoltaic modules, known colloquially as solar panels.
Concentrated solar power (CSP, also known as concentrating solar power, concentrated solar thermal) systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight into a receiver. Electricity is generated when the concentrated light is converted to heat (solar thermal energy), which drives a heat engine (usually a steam turbine) connected to an electrical power generator or powers a thermochemical reaction. As of 2021, global installed capacity of concentrated solar power stood at 6.
An organic solar cell (OSC) or plastic solar cell is a type of photovoltaic that uses organic electronics, a branch of electronics that deals with conductive organic polymers or small organic molecules, for light absorption and charge transport to produce electricity from sunlight by the photovoltaic effect. Most organic photovoltaic cells are polymer solar cells. The molecules used in organic solar cells are solution-processable at high throughput and are cheap, resulting in low production costs to fabricate a large volume.
A device for self-tracking a light source, including a focusing optical device configured to focus incoming light to a focal spot, an adaptive device configured to reflect the light of the focal spot and arranged to provide for a phase change at an area of ...
Solar concentration is intended to decrease the cost of expensive solar cell material by replacing the solar cell with a focusing optical system as the initial receiving aperture. This reduces the amount of solar cell material needed but adds the need of t ...
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Solar concentration is using optics in order to minimize the amount of expensive photovoltaic cell material needed. For concentration factors higher than approximately 4, tracking the sun's position is needed to keep the focal spot on the solar cell. Based ...