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By admin, May 31, 2009 4:41 am

how are solar cells (photo voltaic) effected but heat (potentially in /under a ‘green house’)?

Say I want to put some solar cells (cells) on a velomobile (bike). the cells are flat and I want to make the body of the bike with curves. the cells would likely end up under some clear plastic (lexan?) which would likely create some sort of green house effect on the cells.
At what point is this a concern ?
That is if I ride in 95 degrees fahrenheit ,about 35 degrees centigrade, is this gonig to hurt the cells ability to collect solar energy or would it help?
What if I try using a Fresnel lens instead of lexan?
On the flip side at what point would cooling help or hurt?
What can I do to maximize solar energy gain while keeping it simple (i.e. the cell do not tilt to maximize gain but are fixed firmly to the bike)?

Place the cells inside somewhere where they can be solidly mounted. Then use a concentrator where a large collection window can be focused directly on the cells increasing the amount of energy they put out. Someone once said you could by this method get close to 80% more power than if they were just mounted in open sunlight.

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