BITS Pilani

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Solar Energy Conversion

L e a rn i ng Ou tc o m es
In this tutorial we will get an understanding on.
• How to measure I - U characteristic of a photovoltaic cell in the dark and under the illumination.
P r ob l e m S t at e m e nt
• With the help of remote lab, perform and plot the following

• Plot the voltage-current characteristics of Tesla 1PP75 photo diode for 40% , 70% and 100% light
intensity.
• With the same conditions above, change the control voltage and plot the Voltage and current
characteristics.
• The cell voltage may be adjusted by means of the movable control from -0.5 V to +0.5 V and
simultaneously both the voltage U and current I are displayed and the points of the corresponding
I-U curve occur
B a s ic s

Energy and energy requirements present a serious problem for contemporary science and
technology. Great expectations are put in the so-called solar batteries, which convert solar
energy into electric one.
A semiconductor diode with PN junction (photovoltaic cell, resp. PV cell) is a well-known
device. Its volt-ampere characteristics in the dark is

where I is current through the diode, I0 is the reverse diode current, e is the elementary
charge, U is the voltage, k is the Boltzmann constant, T is the temperature and a is the
coefficient of diode ideality, e is the base of the natural logarithm.
B a s ic s

Dark I-U characteristic of the 
semiconductor diode with PN junction
B a s ic s
The diode changes in the light into a source of electromotive voltage (and a corresponding
source of current) εphoto ~ Iphoto, which is generated as a result of the radiation, so the volt-
ampere (I-U) characteristics changes its form into

and the corresponding I-U characteristics under illumination for three light
intensities L are as shown
S t e ps
• Connection are already made as per the given circuit diagram .
• To start with the experiment, click on start recording button from the control panel.
• Light intensity may be adjusted by means of three controls labeled 40 %, 60 %, 100 % and the
control Off.
• Once you have completed all the above steps click on stop recording button to stop.
• You can observe one complete output waveform showing variations in all the input parameters done
by you.
• Export all the readings to excel by using export button.
R e s u lt s
( C S V )e x p o rt e d d a ta
R e f er e nc e s

• http://www.ises.info
 Thank you!
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