Q61 – Photovoltaic Cells

Topic: Photovoltaic cells (Solar energy)

Team Q61: Loris & Ronny

INTRODUCTION
In unserem Projekt befassen wir uns mit der Solarenergie, Schwerpunkt Photovoltaikanlagen. Unser Ziel ist es, dieses Thema uns selber wie auch Drittpersonen näher zu bringen. Mit Hilfe von zahlreichen Internetrecherchen konnten wir sehr viel über die Solarenergie herausfinden und unser Wissen auf ein neues Level bringen. Ebenso konnten wir mit der Energieberatung der Gemeinde Mönchaltorf ein Interview führen und somit die Meinung eines Experten einholen – auf diese Art und Weise haben wir den Bezug hergestellt, wie es mit den Photovoltaikanlagen in der Realität aussieht.

ABSTRACT
In our project we informed ourselves about photovoltaic cells and solar energy.
Our goals in this subject matter were that we wanted to get across the whole topic to our readers as clear and interesting as possible. We made some internet research and took an interview with Mrs. Moll, an expert in photovoltaic and solar energy, from the commune of Möchaltorf in Zurich. In the interview we asked her some questions about the increase and the popularity of the whole topic; the questions are answered below.
Furthermore we asked a company for a non-binding offer, to see how much money you would have to pay for building a photovoltaic cell on your house. We made a statistic of the improvement of PV-Cells in order to get an impression of how the sales have increased. In conclusion we can say, as an owner of a house it is worth to build a photovoltaic system because the costs incurred are lower in a longer time period. Most important is the environmental aspect, that we can avoid nuclear power and use a renewable energy source, namely the sun.

Here you can see two examples of houses in Mönchaltorf, canton of Zurich, which have photovoltaic cells on their roofs.

Main Question 61 – How do photovoltaic cells work?


Refined Questions:

  1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using photovoltaic cells?
  2. How exactly does the sun produce energy, how do photovoltaic cells work?
  3. How will the usage of solar energy in Switzerland improve in the future?
  4. Would you use solar energy as a main energy source if you were able to?
    -> Did you know that solar energy is more attractive than ever at this time?
  5. Where do photovoltaic cells come from? How much has the sale of PV-cells improved in the last years?

How we search for the answers:

  1. The answers to this questions will mostly be answered by internet research.
  2. If possible, we will maybe make an interview with a company that builds photovoltaic cells.
  3. We will make some calculations and researches about the step-by-step change in the Swiss evolution with photovoltaic cells.
  4. There is an interesting website which shows you the nearest photovoltaic cells’ seller.

Sundries:
We would like to get in touch with the community of Mönchaltorf (the “Energieberatung Möchaltorf”) and get an expert’s comment from them. We will use the internet as a source for our research and we will try to take some good pictures.

Goal/Result:
All results are going to be summed up on our webpage and of course we would like to have meaningful answers to our questions and a quick summary about our new knowledge.

Expert’s Comment:
We are going to make an interview with someone from the community of Mönchaltorf (building departement). Maybe we can talk to someone who has already photovoltaic cells at home.

Useful Sources

Pros & Cons: Quick Pros and Cons of Solar Photovoltaic (blog.renewableenergyworld.com)
Interesting Company: helion-solar.ch
Facts about Switzerland and photovoltaic producers: (solarprofis.ch) (energieschweiz.ch)
Heading picture and photovoltaic project example: Photovoltaik-Anlage Quinten – Versorgung mit erneuerbarer Energie (swisscleantech.ch)

Page 2: Interview mit Frau Bea Moll, Gemeindeverwaltung Mönchaltdorf =>

☷ See the project teams here »
☵ Some words about the contributions »

7 thoughts on “Q61 – Photovoltaic Cells

  1. Hello to every body, it’s my first visit of this web
    site; this blog consists of remarkable and genuinely good
    stuff for visitors.

  2. Dear Loris,
    Dear Ronny,
    I’m very interested in solar energy but I didn’t know much about the photovoltaic cells.
    In my opinion you did a really good job because your contribution is very interesting and understandable. I also liked your interview with Mrs. Moll it gives a lot of good information about this topic.
    Well done guys!!! I could learn a lot about this energy source and I think photovoltaic cells are going to be a really important energy source in the future.
    Many thanks for your efforts.

    With kind regards
    Marino

  3. Hi Team Q61

    I often wondered why so many people are not interested in the use of solar energy. That\’s the reason I was keen on reading your project. Solar pannels are ecologically-friendly and I thought there can\’t be something bad in it. However, your project has showed me that there are also disadvantages.
    I\’m very impressed about your work. I\’ve never imagined that the solar cells are so expensive. In my opinion it would be great if everyone had just a small solar pannel on their roof. It would be a first step in a better environment.

    After I\’ve read your project I was very interested in the following question: Which country uses the most solar energy? So I researched and found a fantastic chart. Unfortunately it\’s a chart from 2011 but i think there was not a big change since then.
    http://www.photovoltaik.org/news/energiewende/entwicklung-der-weltweiten-photovoltaik-leistung-2011-1241

    Your project is really good and entertaining. One little hint: Write the questions of the interview with mrs Moll above the answers. So we don\’t have to always scroll up and down 😉

    Kind regards
    Rebekka

  4. Hi Loris & Ronny

    I was really interested in your topic because in Switzerland you can see more and more houses using photovoltaic cells! So I wondered why people decide to buy them. Reading your project gave me a great overview and knowledge about photovoltaic cells. I do care about our environment and sustainable development. I think it\’s great that two young men take their time to do some research about such an important topic. Well done and thanks again for the interesting article!

    Best wishes,
    Natalie, VZB/ Q28

  5. Hi my fellow students
    First of all I wanna say you have done an amazing job on researching the photovoltaic cells.

    I chose to comment on this theme because my father and I are users of photovoltaic cells ourselves! We installed several solar energy cells on our house in croatia. Our household uses almost entirely renewable energy.
    As you stated above photovoltaic cells are obviously very expensive, but they are surely taking us a step closer to saving the planet 🙂

    With kind regards
    Damir Stanicic

  6. Lieber Loris
    Lieber Ronny
    Mit grossem Interesse habe ich eure Arbeit gelesen!
    Das gewählte Thema erachte ich als sehr wichtig, da es notwendig ist, dass sich die Weltbevölkerung alternative Energiequellen vermehrt zu nutzen macht.
    In eurem Post habt ihr das gewählte Thema sehr ausführlich bearbeitet und mit neuen Inputs zum nachdenken angeregt. Euer Text ist einheitlich und professionell gestaltet und auch die Sprache ist für den Leser angenehm.
    Das einzige, was mir beim lesen als kleiner Mangel aufgefallen ist, war, dass die Interviewfragen nicht direkt über den Antworten platziert sind. Ich empfehle euch , dies anzupassen und den Text somit leserfreundlicher zu gestalten.
    Aus eigenem Interesse habe ich im Internet noch nach dem Unterschied von Photovoltaik- und Solaranlagen gesucht und bin auf folgenden Link gestossen:https://www.gwrueti.ch/fileadmin/Public/Website/Inhalte/Thermischen_Solaranlagen_und_Photovoltaik.pdf
    Vielen Dank für die Tolle Arbeit.
    LG Yuri

  7. Guys,
    To start with an introduction is good for the reader. I like that you did an effort and wrote your thoughts in English and German.

    Your Topic will come more and more popular in our society and for that you also had an interview with Mrs. Moll. On the interview part your structure and your questions are interesting and her answers are understandable. Regarding the question 4 to her, 20 Photovoltalic cells solar that does not sound a lot but on 1500 m2 it is actually a lot if we consider that Mönchaltorf has a population around 3500-4000 as I remember.
    The comparison between the advantages and disadvantages gives a lot of information. It is comprehensible that is a big topic but I would try to gives shorter answers.
    What I also noticed, you gave given almost on every part your link from where you got this information. The good thing is that if we want to know more we just have to click.
    I do like your contribution and want to say thank you guys!

    Allam

Leave a Reply to Bouharat Allam Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *