In this course we'll examine the principal methods of harvesting energy from sunlight—concentrated solar power and photovoltaic cells—starting from fundamental physics principles.
By the end of this course, you’ll be able to answer practical engineering questions surrounding multi-junction cells, materials design, and considerations in servicing utility scale electrical grids.
Here we learn about the importance of solar energy on Earth and the bedrock science needed to understand it.
Almost all energy on Earth is old sunlight stored for different amounts of time.
The basic anatomy of solar radiation and how it spreads through space.
A photon's energy content is determined by its wavelength.
30% of the Sun's photons carry 50% of its energy to Earth.
Take a quantitative look at how much sunlight reaches Earth and explore how we can concentrate sunlight to higher intensity.
Just how much energy makes it from the Sun to Earth's surface?
Light beam intensity puts fundamental limits on what we can power with the Sun.
Just because you want to squeeze light beams together doesn't mean that you can.
How much energy you can collect from sunlight depends on where you are and what time it is.
A close look at concentrated solar power, a flexible collection mode that enables solar power at night.
Can you heat your home at night with sunlight from the day?
You don't need a solar panel to harvest solar energy.
If you want to get the most from solar thermal, you need to make things hot.
Careful design of thermal properties can drastically reduce our losses.
An introduction to solid state photovoltaic cells and the physics that enables their production of power.
An overview of how photovoltaic panels turn sunlight into electricity.
If you're an electron in a semiconductor, you're either bound to an atom or you're conducting.
A solar cell can't harvest the energy from any old photon, it has to be just right.
When an electron and a hole recombine, useful energy turns into wasted heat.