SOL 101 — Energy, Light & the Solar Resource
What this course is. A from-scratch course in the physics a solar student actually needs: energy and power, the nature of light, blackbody radiation, the solar spectrum and what the atmosphere does to it, and the standard test conditions (STC) behind every efficiency number on a datasheet. It ends with a first look at how much of this light can become electricity — the band-gap cutoff, the Shockley–Queisser limit, and a first energy-loss "waterfall" — so every later course has context.
Prerequisites. High-school algebra. Calculus ideas (area under a curve) are introduced where needed, in plain words.
How to study a unit. Read the page top to bottom (or play the narration/video, which walks through the same sections in the same order), work the worked examples yourself with a calculator, then try the review questions before opening the answers. Do the lab that belongs to the unit.
Learning outcomes
By the end you will be able to:
- Convert between energy, power and photon quantities; compute photon energy and photon flux.
- Explain blackbody radiation and why the Sun's spectrum looks as it does.
- Read AM0 / AM1.5 spectra, irradiance and air mass — and integrate real spectral data yourself.
- Explain why STC is AM1.5G / 1000 W/m² / 25 °C, and how NOCT/NMOT and temperature coefficients describe real operation.
- State the thermodynamic idea behind limits on solar conversion and draw the first loss waterfall for silicon.
- Describe how incidence angle affects light collected and reflected.
Units
| # | Unit | Lab |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Energy, power, units and orders of magnitude | — |
| 2 | Heat, work, entropy and the limits of efficiency | — |
| 3 | Waves and the electromagnetic spectrum | 101-A (grating) |
| 4 | Photons: E = hc/λ, photoelectric effect, photon flux | 101-A |
| 5 | Blackbody radiation: Planck, Wien, Stefan–Boltzmann | 101-C (filament) |
| 6 | The Sun from space: solar constant and AM0 | — |
| 7 | The atmosphere: absorption, scattering, air mass, AM1.5 | 101-A |
| 8 | Working with real spectral data: integration | data lab inside unit |
| 9 | Angles: sun position, incidence, Fresnel reflection, bifacial | 101-B (angle) |
| 10 | Variability and temperature: STC, NOCT/NMOT | 101-B |
| 11 | Preview: what can sunlight do to a semiconductor? | — |
Hands-on labs
- Lab 101-A: Sunlight versus lamps with a diffraction-grating spectroscope
- Lab 101-B: A solar cell as a light sensor — angle and intensity
- Lab 101-C: Filament temperature from a light bulb
Course lab budget: roughly \(60–\)200 (estimate). See the consolidated starter-kit shopping list to order everything at once.
Core references
PVEducation (Honsberg & Bowden), sections Introduction and Properties of Sunlight; ASTM G173-03 reference spectra; Kopp & Lean (2011) for the solar constant; Shockley & Queisser (1961); Richter, Hermle & Glunz (2013). Full list on the Sources page.