Can a UV light or IR light power a solar cell?
by Mosman Council
Question by rvb_rokz: Can a UV light or IR light power a solar cell?
Can an ultraviolet light or infrared light source power a solar cell?
If it can or cannot can you explain why? I need to know this for my science project on renewable energy
Best answer:
Answer by Maeve D
yes
What do you think? Answer below!
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about 1 year ago
Yes if it is designed in that way generally a solar battery has a low efficiency of getting energy from UV light or IR radiations because it is designed for getting energy from visible radiaton.
for example if you take a car there is a difference in between a normal car and a racing car in the same way it depends on the design you make for that battery.
about 1 year ago
It depends on what material the solar cell is made from. If it’s silicon (the most common) then the answer is yes.
A minimum energy is required to convert photons (light particles/wave packets) to electricity. As long as the photon has more than that energy then it will make electricity. For silicon, the minimum energy is in the infra red region, so IR will create power. Visible light is more energetic than IR, and UV more than visible. So these will also create power. But for one photon arriving, only one electron of a specific voltage is produced. Even though UV photons have enough energy to create many such electrons, they only produce one and the rest of the energy is wasted as heat. That is why simple solar cells are not very efficient.