What is solar energy? Well solar energy can be obtained in much the same way an electrical circuit operates. Voltage (v) is the amount of energy per charge required to move a charge around a circuit. The current (I) is the moving charge. There are two types of elctrical currents: alternating (AC) and direct (DC). A direect current (DC), also known as photovoltaics, generate constant electricity. For example, buildings are powered by alternating currents. Yet, an inverter is needed to use a photovoltaic to power appliances in the home to convert to an alternating current. Things such as phone chargers use a direct current.

Not only does the electrical current effect the solar ciruit, but so does the light intensity. Light Intensity is a measure of the energy of the light. The higher the intensity, the more photons genrate, hence, greater current voltage. The lights wavelenght is the speed of light, while frequency is the number of cycles per second that pass a given point.

These terms were all demonstrated in the Solar Cell Experiment we conducted. The procedure to this experiment included…

1. measure distance between solar cell and light
2. shine light and run labview program
3. average the data that appears in excel file: Test2.LVM
4. repeat for four different values of d.
5. plot average voltage (intensity) vs. d.
6. repeat steps 1-3 for four different colored filters

Our data was as shown…

In conclusion, the lighter the filter, the higher the voltage. To me this was surprising because I thought that dark colors attracted more light, therefore, blue should’ve had a higher voltage. However, my experimental results proved I had things backwards.