1.

Photon energy of the light with a given wavelength could be calculated by the following equation:
*hint: wavelength of light is not in SI unit, unit conversion is needed
Equation 1

a. Using the equation above, please calculate photon energy of

(1) yellow light (600 nm),

(2) blue light (450 nm) [1 pt]

b. What is the band gap of the semiconductor, if it can only be excited by the light with wavelength equal to or smaller
than
(1) 500 nm,

(2) 1000 nm [1 pt]

*hint: the photon energy needs to be greater or equal to the band gap, in order to
excite semiconductor

2. Maximum power output determines the maximum solar cell efficiency at a given irradiance.
𝑃 = 𝐼V Equation 2
Where:
𝑃: power, watt 𝐼: current, ampere 𝑉: voltage, volt
Table 1 Measurement of current and voltage of a solar cell under 500 W/m2 irradiance
Using the equation and data above, please answer the following questions:
a. Generate a plot containing current-voltage curve and power curve [1 pt]
b. Annotate the maximum power point [0.5 pt]

c. Calculate the corresponding maximum cell efficiency (incidence radiation flux = 500W/m2, cell collection area = 156
mm x 156 mm) [0.5 pt]
4. Please use the carbon payback equation discussed in the lecture and the data in Table 3 to calculate the carbon
payback (in years) of a solar PV system:
Table 3. Carbon emissions (in kg CO2-e) of installed solar PV system and electricity generated from grid, as well as the
data for electricity generation from the solar PV of interest

a. Base scenario [1 pt]

b. Alternative scenario (the difference is the carbon intensity of electricity from grid) [1 pt]

5.
The author stated that although PV is a sustainable energy source that can significantly reduce carbon emissions and
pollution. Though PV energy is considerably clean during operation, there are some concerns regarding its impact on air
quality and climate change.
Solar energy projects usually require a larger land area compared to fossil fuels. Some novel solutions are stated in the
article to deal with it, for example, reduce the area required for solar array by making it two tilted angles, which
becomes the dual-angle solar harvest system.
While the improvement on reducing the PV carbon footprint has more solutions to be applied at different stages and
areas. Some examples are using mixed renewable energy in the production process, lengthening the PV solar cell
lifespans, and raising the irradiance in the desert area.
In the manufacturing stages, hazardous materials are emitted both during the process of extraction of solar cells and
semiconductors etching. It is very important to recycle the deposed module as many of them are rare and could cause
long-term environmental issues if dumped. However, the recycling process still needs to be advanced to lower the price
and enhance the usability of waste modules.
Even though the running of PV module does not tend to create noise, there are significant noise produced during
manufacturing, effecting surrounding neighborhood and animals. To resolve this problem, novel design suggest using PV
as an barrier near the highways and produce electricity at the same time. The large scale PV module could also create
visual pollution raised by public, which can be simply resolved through placing them on the rooftop or structure them
into pleasant shape.
Despite the fact that PV systems are described as zero-emissions systems, there are many potential environmental
effects involved. Researchers are working on upgrading PV in every production process and minimize the GHG emission
and all other kinds of pollution into zero.