Why does heat negatively affect a photovoltaic cell’s efficiency in solar panels?
Can someone please explain why higher temperatures lower the efficiency of photovoltaic cells to produce electricity? I initially thought heat would play no part in a photovoltaic cell but have recently read that it adversely affects it. Does anyone know why?
January 25th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
What makes photovoltaic cells produce electricity is light (especially in the ultra violet spectrum), not heat.
Where you use heat are so-called solar water heaters, where water is actually pumped through (black) panels and thus heats up by the absorption of the sunlight’s energy by the metal panels.
Most electronic components work less efficient in higher temperatures than lower ones. Something to do with electrical resistance increasing with heat. Super-computers are cooled with some liquid gas, in order to avoid loss of processing speed.