Converting Solar Power into Electricity

System
System Posts: 2,511 admin
in Solar Beginners Corner #1
Hi Guys,

I am working on a modelling project for which I need to model a solar generator that takes in x amount of solar power (concentrated) and converts it into y amount of electricity.

I would appreciate it if someone could point me to a formula (preferably scientific publication) which gives me the conversion and the required inputs.

Thanks & Regards.
John
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  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,639 admin
    #2
    Re: Converting Solar Power into Electricity

    What are you looking for? Solar PV panels? Solar Thermal (steam turbine or hot water)? Or what?

    Are you looking for "in the cell"? Or a system (cell to panel to charge controller to battery bank to inverter to load)?

    Grid or off grid. Electrical, thermal, heating/cooling, etc...

    You can go with scientific research--but there is also a lot of rules of thumbs and design guidelines from many industries.... All are valid in their way--and all of limitations between the theoretical and practical.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
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  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    #3
    Re: Converting Solar Power into Electricity
    johnpage wrote: »
    Hi Guys,

    I am working on a modelling project for which I need to model a solar generator that takes in x amount of solar power (concentrated) and converts it into y amount of electricity.

    I would appreciate it if someone could point me to a formula (preferably scientific publication) which gives me the conversion and the required inputs.

    Thanks & Regards.
    John

    i'll save you some time here as there isn't any formula for x (solar) power in and y (electric) power out as there are too many variables. this is one of the reasons this forum started was to get a better idea of what was needed for certain applications. one can look at it in a general sense, but nothing exacting. even if only addressing pvs with nothing else considered there are variations there too due to the type of pv, efficiencies, thermal deratings and even how and where it's mounted to name a few off hand.
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  • System2
    System2 Posts: 6,290 admin
    #4
    Re: Converting Solar Power into Electricity
    BB. wrote: »
    What are you looking for? Solar PV panels? Solar Thermal (steam turbine or hot water)? Or what?

    -Bill

    Basically, we were trying to model a Solar Thermal based generator. Is there a paper or a publication that I could refer to that could point me in the right direction..
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