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Solar energy => solar systems homemade and commercial => Topic started by: hartiberlin on June 04, 2005, 07:34:25 PM
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Hi All,
I just found a statement, how a 2N3055 can be used as a solarcell.
Here:
http://www.fieldlines.com/comments/2005/5/3/205028/6819/4#4
is stated:
There is one easy way to do it !
I once purchased a hand full of 2N3055 power transistors at an electronics surplus store. Price was perhaps 25 cents each. I carefully cut the top off one of them (TO-3 can), exposing the die. I obtained a cheap magnifying glass about 6 inches in diameter, connected an ammeter to the collector and base leads and used the magnifying glass to focus the sun on the chip. It produced in excess of 4 amps ! In a circuit you would get best power at perhaps .5V and 3 amps so you would have to put a few of them in series to do anything useful.
Did somebody try something like this ?
Is it for real, that you get 0.5 Volts and up to 4 Amperes ?
But probably you would cook pretty soon the silizium, right ?
What will you get at a cloudy day ?
Regards, Stefan.
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Is it the light or would heat work - try soldering iron.
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Out here focusing tha 6" lens incenerates stuff. Don't think it would last long.
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hi all
I used a old camera lens from a one way camera it did give here in foridas sunlight 0.6V and a wopping 5 amps at total focus. Theheat generated with this lense is enough to come to around 600 deg F but if there is a heatsink about 4 X 4 Inches put on the transistor it gets just a bit over 110deg F. even if it is cloudy the output still runs on 1,6 to 2 Amp
there is a loss of about 25 to 40 % if a couple put in series.
greetings
walt
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Hi Walt,
thanks for testing this-
When I have more time I will also look for some old
2N3055 I still have lying around somewhere.
Where did you connect the lead, between collector and emitter ?
Regards, Stefan.
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Hi Guys,
Some solar data:
Irridation of 1,000w/m^2 (Max surface level). Probably better to use 900w/m^2.
6" dia lens or 150mm = 0.01767m^2 area * 900w/m^2 = 15.9 watts input to transistor (not including lens transmission losses of about 10%)
Irridation efficiency:
0.5v @ 3a = 1.5w =? ?9.4%
0.5v @ 4a = 2.0w = 12.6%
0.5v @ 5a = 2.5w = 15.7%
Power loss for silicon is about 0.5% per degree C temp rise so good heat sinking is important. Heat sink to about twice the lens area. Suggest you use at least 4mm thick aluminum and use a good heat sink paste between the transistor and the heat sink.
So heat load = 15.9w (solar input) * 0.9 (lens efficiency) * (1 - .126 (efficiency @ 4a)) = 12.5 watts to heat sink at no more than 10C above ambient for good cell efficiency.
For the lens I suggest you use a rigid acrylic Fresnel lense as they have lower losses (about 92 - 93% efficiency).
To get the best efficiency adjust the distance between the transistor and the lens until the bright image of the sun just coveres the silicon of the transistor. There is no need for the image to be focused but just to fully illuminate the silicon surface.
Then you need to track.
Commercial solar concentrator cells are available with efficiencies in the 25 - 37% efficiency range. Checkout:
http://www.sunpowercorp.com/html/Products/SPG/conc.html
All the best,
Greg
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Guys,
64 x 2n3055 @ $0.39us each:
http://store.americanmicrosemiconductor.com/2n3055.html?referrer=google&adlink=2N3055_order
At 2.5 w thats $0.156us per peak watt.
With a good 2 axis tracker you can get a conversion ratio of peak watts to annual kWh of about 2,500. So we should produce about 2.5Wp * 2,500 = 6.25 kWh annually. As most homes use around 5 mWh annually you would need about 800 of these transistors tracking the sun.
Using 6" square Fresnel lens we would get about 28% more energy or about 8 kWh annually per unit. Packing the lens and transistors in a 1 yard square panel we would get 6 * 6 = 36 lens / transistors = 290 kwh annually. Then our 5 mWh energy usage would require 17 such panels and we are off the grid.
All the best,
Greg
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Guys,
Just so we know what we are talking about here is a photo of a 2n3055 minus the case. Note the die size is about 2.8mm square or about 7.9mm^2.
Now a 150mm (6") square Fresnel lens has a surface area of about 22,500mm^2. The sun (concentration) factor is then 22,500 / 7.9 = 2,848 suns. That is an amazing figure as most leading edge concentrators work at around 500 suns, while commercial ones work closer to 20 - 50 suns.
That you guys are seeing 2 to 3 watts from such a simple setup is truly amazing.
Walter can you please repost your readings, load resistor value, lens data (diameter, focal length, etc), 2n3055 die size, manufacturer, etc.
Thanks,
Greg
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Guys,
64 x 2n3055 @ $0.39us each:
http://store.americanmicrosemiconductor.com/2n3055.html?referrer=google&adlink=2N3055_order
At 2.5 w thats $0.156us per peak watt.
With a good 2 axis tracker you can get a conversion ratio of peak watts to annual kWh of about 2,500. So we should produce about 2.5Wp * 2,500 = 6.25 kWh annually. As most homes use around 5 mWh annually you would need about 800 of these transistors tracking the sun.
Using 6" square Fresnel lens we would get about 28% more energy or about 8 kWh annually per unit. Packing the lens and transistors in a 1 yard square panel we would get 6 * 6 = 36 lens / transistors = 290 kwh annually. Then our 5 mWh energy usage would require 17 such panels and we are off the grid.
All the best,
Greg
Hi greg,
I dont know where you get the average home usage , but I need at my house down in florida with A/C 2,400 SF, two well and 1 pool pump each 1 1/2Hp, septic pump,1,000SF workshop,washer and dryer etc. 18 to 20 KW anually.
greetings
walt
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Hi stefan,
I honest dont know which I have connected I will check this again because I try both basis - collector and basis - emitter and both did bring out somethings one more then the other.
I also dont know what manufacturer it just sayd 2N3055 on top. I just took of the top (grinding around with cooling)then took off the plastic cover from the die.Th diameter of the camera lens is around 3/4inch dont know and doesnt say the anything about focul lenght,
The current readings are short circuit with a radio shack DVM set to 20 Amp.
Down here you can not use acrylic lenses because they whould not last more then a few hours in the sun then they start to deform due to the heat (up to 200 degr F)
I try 2 and 4 inch magnifier and they whould not bring more but the distence to focus is to far to make something stable, I aslo try one of this cheap reading glasse with 2.75 and at a distance of about 16 inches it brought allready 0.8 Amp short circuit.I do have a few of this trans laying around and if I find the time I will put a smal array together to see how much it can provide.
But overall in my opinion something like this cannot replace the power for the hole house it only can substitute portions, maybe up to 1kW, for light or so.
greeting
walt
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Hi Walt,
Try connecting the emitter and collector together. That way you get to use both NP junctions (base to emitter and base to collector) to capture photo electrons.
A 3/4" diameter lens would capture about 0.3w of solar energy. Max solar energy at sea level is about 0.1w/sq cm or 0.65w/sq inch.
To calculate power you need to measure both voltage and current. I suggest you try a 4.7, 2.2, 1, 0.47, 0.22 0.1 ohm resistor as the load and plot what you get. The cell voltage produce be around 0.5 - 0.6 volts until it hits the peak power point then drops quite sharply. The peak power point is just before the cell voltage drops sharply. I have attached a typical PV (photovoltaic) IV curve.
Here in Australia a typical house uses around 5,000 to 6,000 kWh annually. Do you know your annual kWh usage?
The company I work for is developing a very innovative solar concentrator and tracking system which should deliver annual kWhs at about 1/2 the cost of traditional fixed flat panels. It is designed to be mounted on domestic roof tops and can even be mounted on north facing roofs to avoid loss of street scape if the home faces south. Reverse the directions for the southern side of the planet.
BTW optical grade acrylic can handle the heat load as it transmits 93% of the light passsing through. Generally glass has higher losses, is much more fragile and weighs more than optical grade acrylic.
Greg
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Guys,
Here are three more examples I found. Note the very much larger die size for the MJ21193 (middle) verus the 2N3055 (left). This transistor (the MJ21193) should really generate some hefty amps.
Greg
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Hi Walt,
Try connecting the emitter and collector together. That way you get to use both NP junctions (base to emitter and base to collector) to capture photo electrons.
A 3/4" diameter lens would capture about 0.3w of solar energy. Max solar energy at sea level is about 0.1w/sq cm or 0.65w/sq inch.
To calculate power you need to measure both voltage and current. I suggest you try a 4.7, 2.2, 1, 0.47, 0.22 0.1 ohm resistor as the load and plot what you get. The cell voltage produce be around 0.5 - 0.6 volts until it hits the peak power point then drops quite sharply. The peak power point is just before the cell voltage drops sharply. I have attached a typical PV (photovoltaic) IV curve.
Here in Australia a typical house uses around 5,000 to 6,000 kWh annually. Do you know your annual kWh usage?
The company I work for is developing a very innovative solar concentrator and tracking system which should deliver annual kWhs at about 1/2 the cost of traditional fixed flat panels. It is designed to be mounted on domestic roof tops and can even be mounted on north facing roofs to avoid loss of street scape if the home faces south. Reverse the directions for the southern side of the planet.
BTW optical grade acrylic can handle the heat load as it transmits 93% of the light passsing through. Generally glass has higher losses, is much more fragile and weighs more than optical grade acrylic.
Greg
Hi greg,
it was a typo my house needs 15 to 18.000Kw.
You know I am not realy in to the solar scene, because here we got great sun times but there are many month 4month rainy season, 5month hurricane season) where as I have testet there is not enough to run solar cells this test was just for fun and the mentioned currentoutput. Maybe later I will do some more testing.
greetings
walt
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Hi
I?m new in this Forum, and my english is not very good, but I will try my best.
Well I bought 3 2n3055, cut off the tops and connected them in series.
On a sunny day I get 1,47 V and on a very cloudy day 0,82 V out, without magnifying glas.
Then I connected a little motor from an old walkmann to a simple Battery (1,5 V) to messure the current (0,355 A).
So I thought that it woud be no problem for the "transistor-solarcell" to drive the motor....
...but nothing happens!!!
The voltage breaked down and the Ampmeter displayed 0,005 A.
Is that right?
That the high Amps are only produced by concentrating the light with a magnifying glas?
In that case I will try to get some and try out again.
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Yes,please try with a magnifiying glas and report again.
Thanks !
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Hi All,
A couple of years ago we did some experimenting with this but never tried a transistor in a can as you have, basically we found that diodes and power transistors just to name a few all act like a solar cell but the power was so small, but with enough of them it would, we never used a magnifying glass.
Tons of this stuff are tossed out each day
J3S
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I'm easily getting 0.6v out of one of these.? It can be done without the lens.? With amps its a different story.? A lens is definately needed.? With my tiny 1" lens that does not really even heat it up much its still enough for 100x improvement in amps.? Its 3ma versus 0.03ma.? You probably need to heatsink and use a really good fresnal lens for 2w.
Eric
Edit: an hour later (9:20 am) the sun came up a little bit more. It was then 0.2ma without lens versus 40ma with lens. Voltage is up to 0.67V for a single transistor!
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Thats really interesting. But there is the other problem, linking the transistors together...
-- Andi
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Actually I did some quick tests with a 7x10 inch fresnel lens and its not giving me any more amps.? Its strong enough to easily eat through paper in seconds ;)? Also basic tests give me over 2W off of a normal solar cell that usually gets 0.5w.? Almost 1A. Thats not with complete focus. I'm focusing it so that the amplified light falls on the entire 2x2in or so area.
Eric
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Has anyone tried using a magnifying glass on a calculator solar cell to get a comparison of it's power output.
I've seen solar cell calculators for less then $5 canadian and they usually have 4 solar cells connected in series.
Also was thinking about those canadian tire eliminator solar cells. $35 for a 2.2 watt panel, that's without using a magnifying glass.
With a fresnel lens over top it would be interesting to see what type of output those panels would get.
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sorry to reply to such an old topic but i had a question....
has anyone done this and tryed to figure out how long a solar cell (any kind) can survive under a magnifying lens? heatsink or not this is gonna be one hot puppy! I think perhaps the solar companies do not use magnification to prolong the life of the cell.
how come this topic died out i was just getting interested......
btw what part in the pics posted are the die? the small circut looking thing in the middle? (man that sounds ignorant :) )
thanks
danny
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sorry.....
also..... how many 2n3055 cells would you need to use in order to create a matching voltage and ampers for say a car battery? most of the smaller devices in a house or car could be made to run on a seperate circut of solar cells to compliment what ever system you happen to be running. not to mention taking a solar power scource to the beach to run a small tv or radio or what ever. if one could create say a two foot panel of cells think it would work?
i entend to continue looking into this and develope a system farther...... (first step.... finding a good cheap/free scource of 2n3055 cells.....)
what kinds of devices are these 2n3055 things used in.... i can go check with some local stores and warehouses and manufacturers to see if they tos them out....
thanks again
danny
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all transistors work as PV cells if the light not heat falls on the base connection ie saw off the top of the can. Electrical connections are then made to the collector and emitter. output varies with light.
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Gentlemen ,
I am wondering why you left Such a thread without any more input .
I just came from a friend's house . We took off the 'heads' of such transistors (even 2N3055) and we measured close to 0,3 Volts from One only transistor . And that was from Room Light ... !
The Current should be too low (less than 10 milliAmps) because it would Not even start a Tiny motor . We are airmodellers and we have All kinds of motors ...
Tomorrow I'll continue with experiments on the sunlight . There is Plenty of Sun here in Greece ... ;)
Even if they make 30 or 40 milliAmps (without Lens) it IS a HUGE achievement .
Regards , DM
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Probably an info source:
www.1000inventions.com Technical field : Electricity : 862 : IBIYEMI
S
dL
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Well ,
things did Not go as I was expecting . Current seems to be Very Low even in Sunny days .
One cable was soldered to the Base of the transistor and the other on the Collector or the Emmiter (I am Not sure ) . After that , both were connected in series .
When exposed to the Sun , I could measure about 0,8 Volts . When the sunlight was enhanced with a Lense and focused on one of them , voltage seemed to rise up to 1 Volt .
The next step was to connect a Tiny DC Motor but when I did that , there was an Enormous drop in voltage (close to Zero) and the motor would Not move of course . That indicated that I didn't have any Wattage there .
According to the power they had and the cost of them plus the cost of the lenses plus the man hours to fit everything together , I came to a conlusion that a Typical Solar Cell of the market would be way better .
Just my two cents .
DM
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I had heard about this about 5 years back.I took a clear LED and focused some sunlight on it and got a couple of volts.Triffid
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Did you say LED??
How did you do that??
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About magnifying glass.
How many energy you can get direct from sun focused through 5" magnifying glass ??? Relatively a lot of :o
http://www.coolschool.ca/lor/PH11/unit8/U08L04/conv1.gif
And then what about 2w you can get when using 2n3055 >:(
It was somewhere in 1966 we tried with guys to "get electricity" with cut off tops transistors ... no lenses of course ::)
greetings,
khabe
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I had heard about this about 5 years back.I took a clear LED and focused some sunlight on it and got a couple of volts...
...and how many amps (or mA )?
Paul.
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I have leds that give me from 1.2 to 1.5 volts with 6 micro amp each there red in a clear casing they can be driven by the sun or from light bulb.
3 Of them in series got me 4.5 volts.Now are they cheaper them small solar panel.Just ad a joule thief and voila! Joule thief are small transformer they can be built for voltage or amperes.The 2n3055 may ad amps i did not test it , i cant spare one they are so useful .
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Texas instrument made a ic version of the joule thief , that can be easily powered from form radio waves or piezo or solar , or hall effect even pelletier.
http://jumpcut.com/view/?id=FB209A1A37F511DDB1D9000423CEF5B0
also leds if can get power from the sun where could we find more, we have uv leds ,infrared leds ?
thanks to texas instrument we should make it a better world.
http://mae.pennnet.com/display_article/342401/32/ARTCL/none/none/1/The-Joule-Thief-harvests-vibration-energy-to-power-devices-in-the-field/
a series of transformer will get us a usable output.
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This topic's been quiet a long time but since it's the right place...
I connected 5 of these 2N3055 solar cells in series and got them to power a small 1.5V calculator using indoor lighting, and of course sunlight works too.
My tests showed that I got the most power using the collector as negative and the base as positive and ignoring the emitter.
It does have to be at most 1 foot away from a 27 watt compact fluorescent lightbulb to work. I'm getting the needed voltage but it's the current that doesn't let me go further from the bulb. I'm thinking of adding a second set of five transistors in parallel to get more current but I've run out of them and the local store doesn't have any in stock yet.
Anyhow, here's a video of my initial experiments with just one transistor:
http://youtu.be/526xslmO6Ds
and here's a video with the five transistors in series (solar panel?) powering the calculator:
http://youtu.be/2bUc8RqSFXs
More photos and write-up can be found here:
http://rimstar.org/renewnrg/make_solar_cell_using_transistor_2n3055.htm
I also did some testing it with a fresnel lens but nothing very rigorous. I figured I'd stay away from the heat issues and just go the multiple transistor route like I did.
-Steve
http://rimstar.org http://youtube.com/rimstarorg
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Texas instrument made a ic version of the joule thief , that can be easily powered from form radio waves or piezo or solar , or hall effect even pelletier.
http://jumpcut.com/view/?id=FB209A1A37F511DDB1D9000423CEF5B0 (http://jumpcut.com/view/?id=FB209A1A37F511DDB1D9000423CEF5B0)
also leds if can get power from the sun where could we find more, we have uv leds ,infrared leds ?
@Mk1
I would like to ask you to post the name (devide number or part name) of the Texas Instrument ic version of a Joule Thief. The link you provided does not work any more.
Thank you in advance,
Conrad
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Hi all,
About 4 years ago I constructed a solar tracker using green leds to power the circuit. I tested different leds and found the greens ones put out the most power.
Cheers Michel
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Hi Michel,
Do you remember how much power a single LED put out, or voltage and current?
-Steve
http://rimstar.org http://youtube.com/rimstarorg
About 4 years ago I constructed a solar tracker using green leds to power the circuit. I tested different leds and found the greens ones put out the most power.
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Sorry for the long delay in answering someones question here.I never measured for amps.Just volts.two volts and I was happy!triffid
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Out here focusing tha 6" lens incenerates stuff. Don't think it would last long.
Vorg has a point. A 6" magnifying glass, with a naturally short focal ratio compared to the diameter, in the noonday sun, would probably focus a REALLY BRIGHT spot on something and have a temperature hot enough to reduce freshly cut, green plant cellulose fibers to carbon with lots of smoke and heat. Focussing the spot on the palm of your hand would likely do the same thing.
Did the transistor melt? Burn?
--Lee