Timeline for Current Sources - Usage and Projects
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
4 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 3, 2010 at 0:18 | comment | added | JustJeff | solar cell voltage is related to the band-gap in the semiconductor material the cell is made of. photons at or above the band gap energy cause electron-hole pairs to form in the junction, and the field from the lattice drives these in opposite directions, supplying the current. so the voltage is related to the material, relatively constant, and the current depends on the number of suitably energetic photons striking the cell, so the available current is related to the amount of illumination. fwiw, i'd say this makes a solar cell a more of a voltage source, not a current source. | |
| Apr 24, 2010 at 15:25 | comment | added | pingswept | You are correct-- solar panels generally feed into a power tracking circuit that varies its impedance with a switching element to maximize the power extracted from the panel. | |
| Apr 22, 2010 at 21:36 | comment | added | jpc | If solar cell voltage remains constant how can the current change? You must be thinking about some kind of smart switching-mode load since this would not be possible with normal resistive loads. | |
| Apr 22, 2010 at 18:19 | history | answered | pingswept | CC BY-SA 2.5 |