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General Use: Most applications require batteries to be used in-circuit. The batteries must be charged by the solar panel and the batteries will in turn power your device. Solar operating voltage must be slightly higher than the battery voltage. Direct powering of devices requires knowledge of the voltage and current of your device. Light bulbs: Light emitting diodes (LED's, which require 3 volts, plus 50mA per LED) work best for mini-panel applications. Motors: Our best electric motor for mini-panel applications is part number MC-05/07 (rated at 0.5V to 7.2V. 100mA to start-up, 20mA to run). The most important factor for operating miniature...

Junior Solar Sprint Instructional Resources Solar Made JSS Kit Instructions NREL Intro to Building a Model Solar Car Science Buddies JSS Teacher Lesson Plan Science Buddies JSS Student Project Plan     Junior Solar Sprint Competitions TSA JSS Competition AEOP JSS Competition FSEC JSS Competition     Million Solar Stars, AKON, & Solar Future Today JSS Competition   Have questions or need help ordering? Call us at 1-800-246-7012 or email sales@solarmade.com.

Basic Solar Cell Information and Graphs Sunlight contains many colors of light which are received as wavelengths. Color and relative power in each color of light is determined by the measure of these wavelengths. Figure 1 below plots this relationship between wavelengths and color among the spectral distribution of ordinary light. Figure 1: Wavelength to Power Graph   The relative response of a typical silicon solar cell across the light spectrum is represented in Figure 2. As we can see from the chart, silicon solar cells have a high response over a broad range of wavelengths.   Figure 2: Wavelength...