Solar cells at present furnish the most important long-duration power supply for satellites and space vehicles. It is also used in street lighting on experimental basis, in several places. This is one of the major thrust areas for producing power, using non-conventional energy. Since the current produced is very small, many P-N junction photo diodes are connected in series-parallel combination to achieve the desired voltage and current. This is called photo voltaic cell array. In this demonstration instrument, when no light is applied to a solar cell, the output voltage is zero. For ambient light, the solar cell produces some voltage, which is fed to a signal conditioner. The voltage produced in solar cell, is amplified by three times and displayed in a digital panel meter. The solar cell used in this trainer has maximum output voltage of 0.5V. An amplifier increases this by three times and produces 1.5V DC at its output terminals. By applying variable light intensity. We can observe the corresponding O/P voltage, and the characteristics of the solar cell can be recorded. EXPERIMENT: To study the characteristics of Solar PhotoVoltaic Cell, under 3 different light intensities. For ambient light, low intensity, and high intensity. Plot a graph of Output voltage Vs Distance of the light source. This observation can be recorded for 3 different light intensities.

Specifications:

• One Photovoltaic cell (0-0.5V Max).
• A concave lens to produce concentrated beam of light.
• Two concentric sliding tubes, one inside the other to adjust the distance, from light source to the Photo Voltaic cell.
• A built-in signal conditioner.
• Light source with variable light intensity.
• A digital panel volt meter (0-2V).