How does the output voltage of a solar cell depend on thearea of the solar cell exposed to the light?

Answer 1

because the out put voltage of a solar cell is directly proportional to the area of the solar cell exposed to sun light.

Testing your solar cell with the application of shading will cause a loss of power and lower voltage and current at the peak power point, However, if you are measuring open circuit voltage only, and this is only one cell, not a collection of solar cells making up one solar panel, the open circuit voltage will stay almost the same until full shade is applied.

I would need more information on the solar cells such as are there many in one panel that you are testing or just one solar cell. Is it an array you are testing or just one panel?

I will assume it is one panel since you said "solar cells". This means the first statement I made holds in that the open circuit voltage will change very little with the application of shade.

A better test is to measure the short circuit current flow. Short the output leads together and measure the maximum current yo can get in full sun light. Now apply your shading and continue measuring the current. Make up a table

Shade---------------------Current Measured

0%--------------------------2 amps

10%------------------------1.8 amps

.

.

.

80%-----------------------0.4 amps

Now repeat the measurements only this time open circuit the solar cells, no load of any kind, just the voltmeter.

Shade-----------------------Volts

0%---------------------------35 volts

10%-------------------------35 volts

50%------------------

To complete the testing use a variable resistor and a watt meter. Make a table recording the the shading and maximum power you could develop and the voltage across the resistor. For instance, in full sun light, adjust the resistance until you get the peak or maximum power reading on your watt meter.