Question

Solar panels are designed to take the sun's energy and convert it to electrical energy. In this question, we will assume for simplicity that none of the sun's power is absorbed or reflected by the earth's atmosphere. a) How long does it take radiation emitted by the sun to reach Earth? b) The sun emits 3.8 !! 10^26W of power. What is its intensity at Earth when the sun is directly overhead? c) What is the power that would fall on a large rectangular solar panel, 50 m !! 10 m, located on the earth's surface if the panel's surface is perpendicular to the direction of the sun's rays? d) BC Hydro has a power capacity of 12 GW. (This is how much power could be produced with all of its generating stations running at capacity.) How large a solar panel array would be required to generate the same 12 GW of power when the sun is directly overhead, under ideal conditions (no clouds, etc), if the solar panel is able to convert 15% of the energy arriving from the sun into electrical energy? Is the size that you calculated physically reasonable?

          Solar panels are designed to take the sun's energy and convert it to electrical energy. In this question, we will assume for simplicity that none of the sun's power is absorbed or reflected by the earth's atmosphere.

a) How long does it take radiation emitted by the sun to reach Earth?


b) The sun emits 3.8 !! 10^26W of power. What is its intensity at Earth when the sun is directly overhead?



c) What is the power that would fall on a large rectangular solar panel, 50 m !! 10 m, located on the earth's surface if the panel's surface is perpendicular to the direction of the sun's rays?



d) BC Hydro has a power capacity of 12 GW. (This is how much power could be produced with all of its generating stations running at capacity.) How large a solar panel array would be required to generate the same 12 GW of power when the sun is directly overhead, under ideal conditions (no clouds, etc), if the solar panel is able to convert 15% of the energy arriving from the sun into electrical energy? Is the size that you calculated physically reasonable?

Show more…

Solar panels are designed to take the sun's energy and convert it to electrical energy. In this question, we will assume for simplicity that none of the sun's power is absorbed or reflected by the earth's atmosphere.

a) How long does it take radiation emitted by the sun to reach Earth?

b) The sun emits 3.8 !! 10^26W of power. What is its intensity at Earth when the sun is directly overhead?

c) What is the power that would fall on a large rectangular solar panel, 50 m !! 10 m, located on the earth's surface if the panel's surface is perpendicular to the direction of the sun's rays?

d) BC Hydro has a power capacity of 12 GW. (This is how much power could be produced with all of its generating stations running at capacity.) How large a solar panel array would be required to generate the same 12 GW of power when the sun is directly overhead, under ideal conditions (no clouds, etc), if the solar panel is able to convert 15% of the energy arriving from the sun into electrical energy? Is the size that you calculated physically reasonable?

Added by Tiffany F.

University Physics with Modern Physics

Hugh D. Young 14th Edition

Instant Answer

Solved by Expert Frank Deng

06/02/2022

Step 1

Step 1: The radiation emitted by the sun takes about 8 minutes to reach Earth. Show more…

Show all steps

lock

Thanks for your feedback!

Solar panels are designed to take the sun's energy and convert it to electrical energy. In this question, we will assume for simplicity that none of the sun's power is absorbed or reflected by the earth's atmosphere. a) How long does it take radiation emitted by the sun to reach Earth? b) The sun emits 3.8 x 10^26 W of power. What is its intensity at Earth when the sun is directly overhead? c) What is the power that would fall on a large rectangular solar panel, 50 m x 10 m, located on the earth's surface if the panel's surface is perpendicular to the direction of the sun's rays? d) BC Hydro has a power capacity of 12 GW. (This is how much power could be produced with all of its generating stations running at capacity.) How large a solar panel array would be required to generate the same 12 GW of power when the sun is directly overhead, under ideal conditions (no clouds, etc), if the solar panel is able to convert 15% of the energy arriving from the sun into electrical energy? Is the size that you calculated physically reasonable?

Play audio

Feedback

Powered by NumerAI

Frank Deng and 86 other subject Physics 101 Mechanics educators are ready to help you.

Ask a new question

Labs

Want to see this concept in action?

NEW

Explore this concept interactively to see how it behaves as you change inputs.

View Labs

Key Concepts

Recommended Videos

Recommended Textbooks

Transcript

00:01 I hear in this question, basically, you look at the solar panels, right? to take it around to how to say to utilize the science and energy, right? so you got a couple of questions to answer.

00:10 And the first asks, you know, how long does radiation emit by the sun to research? you know, it takes about 8 minutes, right? about 8 minutes, right? it's well known.

00:22 And the second question is the sound emits a power.

00:25 3 .1.

00:26 So the power of emitted by the sun is 3 .8 times 10.

00:30 To 26 watts, right? what is essentially at earth when the signs direct overhead? but the intensive earth, i of course, is given by the power divided by four pi times r squared.

00:45 Where r is the distance between the center of the earth to the sun, right? so the sun, for example, is here, and the earth is somewhere here.

00:54 So the distance between these two, let's say, error, right? so that's intensity.

00:59 What is the power that would for a large rectangular silo panel, the power, the sea point.

01:07 The power, of course, is given by the intensive times the area, which according to the question is 50 meter times 10 meter.

01:14 So that is the power.

01:18 Finally, imagine you want to generate, let's say, 12 gigawatts, 12 gigawatts apart.

01:29 Using the solar panel, how large it has to be, right? and by it has, suppose it has, is a, right? and the area of the solar panel is a and times the power, or times the intensity.

01:43 And then suppose it converts only 15 % of this energy into the useful energy.

01:49 Therefore, you will get the area of the pseudonym panel has to be as large as, you know, 12 giga, w watts over, i and times 15 % of that.

02:03 So let me do a quick estimate.

02:07 So i can do this we find is this much...

Ace is your personal tutor. It breaks down any question with clear steps so you can learn.

Start Using Ace

Continue solving this problem

Create a free account to:

View full step-by-step solution
Ask follow-up questions with Ace AI
Save progress and study later