1. Solar Power: What, How and Why? Nina Garratley Widening Participation and Student Experience Coordinator College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences © Nina Garratley, Widening Participation and Student Experience Coordinator CEMPS, University of Exeter 04.05.2016. This work is designed to be used at a key stage 4 or equivalent level and is adapted appropriately to show an example of Higher Education Learning; using appropriate research from the academic departments of the University of Exeter and is to be used as a teaching and learning resource and not a published academic article. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.

2. University Style Learning Students attending fieldwork site – hands on problem based learning. Lecture: everyone on the course gathers together to learn about a topic usually an overarching one e.g. if you had a lecture before this session it would most likely be about Renewable Energy as a whole. Seminar: smaller group that looks more closely at the topic in detail. This topic would be Wind Energy so you would explore ideas around wind energy and then you would be set a task either individually or within a group. University students would most likely go off to engineering labs and construction zones to work on their task. Fieldwork: is when you go off campus to explore the topic even further and see how the research works in a real world scenario. This session is designed to be similar to a university seminar in Wind Energy. There are different types of learning methods used in university.

3. What is Renewable Energy? ‘Intelligent’ robotic boat piloted by Exeter researchers makes maiden voyage C-Enduro, produced by ASV global, is the size of a small car, uses energy harvesting technology and has the capacity to travel at sea for up to three months over a range of 4,000 miles. It has a self-righting hull and has been built to operate in all marine environments. http://emps.exeter.ac.uk/news-events/news/title_502463_en.html It is energy produced from a source that is not depleted when used and can be replenished.

4. What is Renewable Energy? Kai Lehmann via Flickr https://flic.kr/p/neERoT Intel Free Press via Flickr https://flic.kr/p/bVvjP5Scott Oves via Flickr https://flic.kr/p/9AzDU9 It is energy from a source that can be replenished within a human timescale, such as wind or solar power. Solar Power Wind Power Hydroelectric Power

5. What is Solar Power? Solar panels or cells turn energy from the sun’s rays directly into useful energy that can be used in homes and businesses. There are two main types: solar thermal and photovoltaic (or PV.) Sunlight is a renewable energy source. Image accessed via Flickr (ricketyus, 4/8/16)

6. What is a PV Solar Cell? Photovoltaic cells get their name from the process of converting light (photons) into electricity (voltage). The ‘PV effect’ was discovered in 1954. Silicon, a main component, creates an electrical charge when exposed to sunlight. Marshalltown Public Library Via Flickr https://flic.kr/p/9iYu4L

7. How does a Solar Cell work? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKxrkht7CpY This video demonstrates how solar cells convert photons into electricity.

8. How does a Solar Cell work? N-type Silicon P-type Silicon Junction Photons from Sunlight

9. Why do we use Solar Power? Solar Power is a clean energy source and solar panels produce electricity for free! The UK could meet all of its power needs by covering just 1% of its land area to solar panels. The power we can get from this is infinite!

10. What are the disadvantages to using Solar Panels? Solar Panels are quite inefficient. The initial set up of Solar Panels is expensive. Solar energy can only be harnessed when it is sunny. It requires large areas of land to build ‘Solar Farms’.

11. Find out the efficiency of a Solar Cell Complete the experiments on your handout. Can you find out the impact of certain variables on the efficiency of your Solar Cell?

12. Remember When you are conducting experiments and research, you need to make sure it is a fair test. You will need to have some constants, think about what they will be in this case. You may also want to repeat your tests and use the mean score.

13. Find out more about studying Renewable Energy / Engineering at university. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3eWLQviIXA http://www.whatuni.com/degree- courses/search?subject=engineering&sort=crh http://www.careerpilot.org.uk/info/a-levels/choosing-your-a-levels- what-you-/

14. Any question? Contact: Tel: 01392 xxxxxx Xxxxxx @exeter.ac.uk www.exeter.ac.uk Join the Conversation! #ExeterOpen @uniofexeter facebook.com/exeteruni