THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

Master of Engineering in Renewable Energy Engineering

REE 6021

ASSIGNMNET NUMBER: 2

ATTENTION: DR. D. E. BANDA

AUTHOR: NAMAFE MABOSHE

COMPUTER NO.: 2017023710

EMAIL ADDRESS: maboshenamafe010@yahoo.com

-2018-
Question 1

If 1 hour = 3600 seconds.

Then 24 hours = 1 day = (3600 * 24) seconds.

This means that there are 86,400 seconds in a day.

Now,

Solar Energy = 4 x 1026 J/s = 4 x 109 kg/s.

This means that the amount of energy produced in the sun in 24 hours (or 86, 400 seconds) is:

4×1026 𝐽
𝑠
× 86,400𝑠 = 𝟑. 𝟒𝟓𝟔 × 𝟏𝟎𝟑𝟏 𝐉

Question 2

The flux of solar radiation energy that arrives at the outermost layers of the atmosphere is called
the total solar irradiance (TSI). The long-term average of the TSI is called the solar constant S.

In photovoltaics, the solar constant is used because it quantifies the amount of radiation energy that
arrives from the sun at the outermost layers of the atmosphere.

The solar constant S is a measure for the total radiation energy. There is also need to know that the
energy of sunlight is distributed over wavelengths, because one type of solar cell may have a good
performance at short wavelengths, while another type of cell may be better at long wavelength.
Therefore, knowing the total radiation energy alone is insufficient for characterizing a solar cell.

The energy of sunlight is called intensity or irradiance. The Figure below shows the intensity of sunlight
over wavelengths, with The Extraterrestrial Solar Spectrum (solid line graph) Compared with a 5800 K
Blackbody (broken line graph).
The spectrum above is called the AM0 spectrum. This acronym stands for air mass zero, meaning that
the spectrum was measured with no air between the sun and the receiver.

As the solar radiation makes its way towards the earth’s surface, some of it is absorbed by various
constituents in the atmosphere, hence giving the terrestrial spectrum the irregular bumpy shape. Both
absorption and scattering depend rather strongly on the path length of sunlight through the
atmosphere. The length of path h2 taken by the sun’s rays as they pass through the atmosphere, divided
by the minimum possible path length h1 which occurs when the sun is directly overhead is called the Air-
Mass Ratio, m.

As discussed above, atmospheric absorption and scattering are the main cause why the solar spectrum
on the earth surface – the terrestrial spectrum – differs from the spectrum above the atmosphere – the
AM0 spectrum.

Often, an Air-Mass ration of AM1.5 is assumed for an average solar spectrum on the earth’s surface. For
AM1.5, 2% of the incoming solar energy is in the UV portion of the spectrum, 54% is in the Visible Range
and 44% is in the IR range of the spectrum. The figure below shows the solar spectrum at AM1.5. For
this spectrum, the most useful photons used by PV cells are in the Visible Range.