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Computer Brain Vs. Solar Photovoltaic
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Computers need to catch up, they need to catch up to the speed and processing capabilities of human brain. All the progress in computers and smart devices can be fairly described using Moore's law. It states "the number of transistors that can be inexpensively placed on an integrated circuit is increasing exponentially, doubling approximately every two years." But even at this pace computers have a long way to go.
On the other hand, solar pv panels are quite close to their ultimate goal. The ultimate goal isn't being 100% efficient and converting all incident sunlight into electricity. But it is to be at grid parity. I was attempting to define the Sayed's Law for Solar PV industry when Jim Slattery brought to my attention the Moore's law equivalent for Solar PV industry.
Even though it can be debated whether the Moore's law equivalent is on track or not, but the reality is that the Solar PV industry is getting one step closer every day to achieving grid parity. Currently there are quite a few companies who are quite confident of reaching grid parity before 2012.
Rahul Bakshi:
Dear Sir
I am trying to learn more about solar cells. I know that as speed of microprocessors increases they have problems related to heat dissipation and eventually the performance degrades. Can you please tell me if solar cells would have any problems as a result of increase in conversion efficiency?
looking forward to get some useful information
Rgds
Rahul Bakshi
BU- Manager
Fezan Sayed:
This a very interesting question. I haven’t yet seen any technical paper that highlights this issue. But my understanding is that solar conversion efficiency is directly proportional to Wp (peak wattage), Isc (short circuit current) and Voc (open circuit voltage). One might certainly argue that a higher efficient cell will convert more of the absorbed energy from sunlight into electricity leaving lesser amount of energy to be converted to heat. I hope this answers your questions.