Solar Connections

Presented by the MathScience Innovation Center

With Mrs. Warren

What is energy?

Energy is the ability to do work.

Energy can be classified as renewable or nonrenewable.

Renewable energy resources can be

remade naturally over time.

U.S. Department of Energy

Nonrenewable energy resources cannot

be remade within our lifetime.

U.S. Department of Energy

Our focus is. . .

solar energy!

What is a solar cell?

A solar cell is a way to capture the sun’s energy and change it to electricity.

Solar cells are also known as photovoltaic cells or PV cells.

How are PV panels built?

Cells are connected to form modules and modules are connected to form arrays.

Creating a solar panel

Here’s a photo of another array.

How many panels would you need?

CA B

What strategies could we use to find the number of PV cells in this module?

Let’s practice together!

Let’s look at our roof again. If we use all of our base ten blocks to make a model, it might be easier to find the area for our solar array.

So what did we find out?

100

30

10

3

How can we use these numbers to find the area of our solar array?

100 + 30 + 10 + 3 =

143

What was the length and width of my original roof?

These are called partial products!

10

1

10

3

How many solar cells do we need

for our roof?

Let’s Experiment Solar Style!!

Solar Racer

Happy Hopping Solar Frog

Thank you!

What if you wanted to add solar panels to your house?

Area is all of the space inside a two dimensional figure.

Perimeter is the distance around the outside of a two dimensional figure.

You would need to know about area and perimeter.

Today’s focus is area…

I want to buy just the right number of cells to cover my roof.