Solar Energy Questions

1. A. How many photons are contained in a 100 mW beam of blue (λ=420 nm) light?

B. How many photons are contained in a 100 mW beam of red (λ=630 nm) light?

C. What is the power in a beam of 1015 photons of blue (λ=420 nm) light?

D. The beam from C has a diameter of 1 mm, what is the power density (W/cm2 )?

E. How does this power density compare to the terrestrial solar power density (100 mW/cm2 )?

2. Make an area chart of the electricity generation sources in the United States over time. These data are available on the web with sufficient searching. Cite your sources! Try to include some data from a future projection.

3. Calculate the AM0 solar constant for Earth. Calculate the solar constant for all the planets in our solar system.

4. Calculate the power density of the AM1.5G solar spectrum via numerical integration. You’ll need to integrate Wm-2nm-1 over wavelength. Tabular data is available at the linked site (http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/spectra/am1.5/ ). Answer should be very close to 1000 W/m2 .