Recently, one of those DIY hack videos popped up on one of my social media feeds. In it, the creator claimed "I turn CD/DVD into a solar panel," which seemed interesting but improbable. So, I started watching the video and thought, there was no way that this could work—is there? I understand, basically, how solar cells, or photovoltaic cells, work. And, I really doubted that this proposed hack could work, despite the video showing a multimeter hooked up to the makeshift solar cell indicating that it did.
It's important to understand how a photovoltaic cell works—they're actually fairly simple, with three parts sandwiched together. The top and bottom are conductive contacts, while the middle is a semiconductor. Semiconductors are materials that allow electricity to flow through them, at a rate somewhere between that of an insulator—which does not—and a metal—which does so efficiently.
Here is the first problem I see with the video... |
Recently, one of those DIY hack videos popped up on one of my social media feeds. In it, the creator claimed "I turn CD/DVD into a solar panel," which seemed interesting but improbable. So, I started watching the video and thought, there was no way that this could work—is there? I understand, basically, how solar cells, or photovoltaic cells, work. And, I really doubted that this proposed hack could work, despite the video showing a multimeter hooked up to the makeshift solar cell indicating that it did.
It's important to understand how a photovoltaic cell works—they're actually fairly simple, with three parts sandwiched together. The top and bottom are conductive contacts, while the middle is a semiconductor. Semiconductors are materials that allow electricity to flow through them, at a rate somewhere between that of an insulator—which does not—and a metal—which does so efficiently.
Here is the first problem I see with the video... |
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