Solar Science & Manufacturing — Intro Courses

Welcome, Brian. This site contains the two foundation courses of the solar curriculum, built out in full: lecture text, worked examples, review questions with answers, hands-on labs with shopping lists, and figures computed from real data (ASTM G173 reference spectra) and standard physics. Each unit also has a narrated MP3 and an MP4 video lecture that walks through the page in order.

The value chain the whole curriculum follows. SOL 101 and SOL 102 give you the physics and materials vocabulary for every step.
The value chain the whole curriculum follows. SOL 101 and SOL 102 give you the physics and materials vocabulary for every step.

The two intro courses

Course What you will be able to do Units Labs
SOL 101 — Energy, Light & the Solar Resource compute photon energies and fluxes, read and integrate the AM1.5 spectrum, explain STC and temperature effects, derive the first loss waterfall and the Shockley–Queisser limit 11 3
SOL 102 — Materials Science & Chemistry for Solar Technology explain bonding and crystal structures of PV materials, defects and lifetime, phase diagrams and segregation, diffusion, silicon refining and etching chemistry, thin films, module materials and process safety 12 4

The courses can run in parallel. Suggested pace: 2 units per week each, plus one lab every week or two — about 6–8 weeks for both.

How to use a unit page

  1. Play the video or the MP3 at the top of the unit page (if the media folder is present next to the site), or read the page. The narration follows the page section by section, so you can do both.
  2. Work the worked examples with a calculator before reading their solution.
  3. Answer the review questions, then open the answers.
  4. Do the lab linked from the course page.

Start here

A note on numbers

Numbers come from named sources or are computed on this site (and say so). Rough figures are labelled estimate. Industry statistics (market shares, production efficiencies) are from ITRPV 17th edition (2026) and the Fraunhofer ISE Photovoltaics Report (2026) as summarised in the curriculum research; check the current editions before quoting them professionally.