solar panel science project hypothesis

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Introduction: (Initial Observation)

Solar Racer activity introduces students to alternative energy concepts while incorporating problem solving, design and modeling. In addition, students will experience using hand tools as they construct their solar vehicle.

The solar car activity may be tried as a science project or as a technology/ engineering project. In either case design and construction of the solar car is the first part of the activity.

As a technology/ engineering project your model car will be evaluated based on design features and performance.

Teachers may arrange a car race as one step in evaluating the performance of solar cars made by different students.

As a science project, you must use your solar car to study one factor such as the angle of solar panel or the angle of sunlight to see how do they affect the performance (speed) of the car. More advanced students may make larger solar car models with 2 or more solar panels.

This project guide contains information that you need in order to start your project. If you have any questions or need more support about this project, click on the “Ask Question” button on the top of this page to send me a message.

If you are new in doing science project, click on “How to Start” in the main page. There you will find helpful links that describe different types of science projects, scientific method, variables, hypothesis, graph, abstract and all other general basics that you need to know.

Project advisor

In this project guide we will provide you with steps of trying solar car project as a Science Project.

Information Gathering:

Find out about solar energy and how it can be used. Read books, magazines or ask professionals who might know in order to learn about the ways you can maximize the use of energy from the sun. Keep track of where you got your information from.

Following are samples of information you may find:

The federal government has encouraged alternative forms of transportation due to a limited supply of oil and increasing environmental pollution. Solar cars are just one of many transportation concepts emerging. Solar cars use solar cell panels instead of gasoline as the fuel. As a result, exhaust fumes and oil consumption are eliminated.

The solar cell panel generates an electrical charge that is stored in a battery and used to provide energy as the vehicle is driven. The lighter the vehicle, the less energy used and the farther the vehicle will travel. In cloudy days, or at night, energy can be drawn from reserve batteries. In the future, charge stations will be located on the road sides for quick battery charging.

Gear Propulsion Solar Car

Introduction: MiniScience’s Solar Racer activity introduces students to alternative energy concepts while incorporating problem solving, design and modeling. In addition, students will experience using hand tools as they construct their solar vehicle.

Teacher Preparation: During construction of the solar racer vehicle, students can experiment and comprehend methods of power transfer, soldering (optional), gear alignment and calculating gear ratios. It is up to the teacher to make sure this background information is provided to students in some manner.

Propulsion Systems:

Propulsion systems include using a solar cell and toy motor with a:

• Pulley and Rubber band drive

Advanced students are encouraged to experiment with different size pulleys, and gears if available.

Basic Tools Required

These items may be required to build the solar vehicle: (You can make your solar car model without them as well)

• craft knife, used to cut or trim soft wood.
• White glue, wood glue or glue gun
• Soldering Iron, needed if you need to solder wires.
• Pliers, used to connect and twist wires together if needed
• rulers, used for measurements
• Pencil, used for marking

Safety Recommendations

During the construction of the solar vehicle, the following safety precautions should be observed.

• Wear safety glasses
• Use care with sharp cutting blades
• Avoid touching the tip of the glue gun or soldering gun
• Put safety first

Competition Categories

Competition between students can be based on design, drawings, final appearance, distance-traveled, speed, etc.

Races can be held between cars that have similar or different types of propulsion Systems.

In addition, teachers could implement a problem-solving category for advanced or older students. Teachers would provide students with the solar racer kit then instruct students to make use of additional materials in the classroom to construct a customized solar vehicle. additional items could include wood scraps, stickers, paint, CD, colored wheels and more. How elaborate or complex the solar cars are depends on imagination and resources.

Question/ Purpose:

What do you want to find out? Write a statement that describes what you want to do. Use your observations and questions to write the statement.

The purpose of this project is to design and construct a solar car model, powered by a solar panel and a small DC motor.

As a technology project, your car may be evaluated based on design, drawings, final appearance, distance-traveled, speed, etc

As a Science Project, you must study one specific factor or question. This is a sample:

How does the angle of sun rays affect the speed of a solar car?

Identify Variables:

When you think you know what variables may be involved, think about ways to change one at a time. If you change more than one at a time, you will not know what variable is causing your observation. Sometimes variables are linked and work together to cause something. At first, try to choose variables that you think act independently of each other.

This is a sample of how you may define variables:

• The independent variable is the angle of the sun rays.
• Dependent variable is the speed of the car
• Control variables are test ground and the condition of the sky. Perform all experiments in clear sky.
• Constants are the direction of the car and the test ground.

Hypothesis:

Based on your gathered information, make an educated guess about what types of things affect the system you are working with. Identifying variables is necessary before you can make a hypothesis.

This is a sample of how you may propose a hypothesis:

I hypothesize that the model solar car will drive faster when the angle of the sunlight is is the most (mid day). (This is the angle of sunlight with the ground)

Experiment Design:

Design an experiment to test each hypothesis. Make a step-by-step list of what you will do to answer each question. This list is called an experimental procedure. For an experiment to give answers you can trust, it must have a “control.” A control is an additional experimental trial or run. It is a separate experiment, done exactly like the others. The only difference is that no experimental variables are changed. A control is a neutral “reference point” for comparison that allows you to see what changing a variable does by comparing it to not changing anything. Dependable controls are sometimes very hard to develop. They can be the hardest part of a project. Without a control you cannot be sure that changing the variable causes your observations. A series of experiments that includes a control is called a “controlled experiment.”

Make the Solar Car

Introduction:

You must make a solar car that is well designed, strong and has low friction between the moving components.

Materials Checklist:

Following is a list of materials used in a solar car. (These materials are also available as a kit at MiniScience.com). Solar cars may be propelled using a pulley/ rubber band method or some types of interlocking gears. In this project we will use gears.

• Rear Slicks 1 9/16″ diameter x 5/8″ wide (1/2″ wide for geared slicks)
• Front Wheels 1 3/8″ diameter
• 1/8″ dowel for axles
• Traction Bands (for non-geared slicks)
• Eyelets or washers
• Wood Sheet 5″ x 2″ x 3/32″ (or larger, so you can cut to any size)
• Basswood 5mm x 5mm x 20cm stick
• Motor Mount (With straps if needed)
• Gears or pulleys
• Procedure Sheet or Grid Planning Sheet

Standard Assembly Steps

Before starting to assemble (put together) your solar car, prepare your design with exact location of the axles, wheels, gears and motors. Note that if you mount the motor in a wrong place, either the gears do not engage or they will create too much friction bringing your car to a halt.

• Locate the grid planning sheet in the kit.
• Using a pencil and ruler, design the body of the vehicle and propulsion system. Remember, the lighter the vehicle’s body, the further it will travel.
• Show the drawing to the teacher when ready.

After your drawings are approved, Make your solar car model in 3 simple steps. The details of these steps may be different depending on your design.

Construct the basic car chassis with 4 wheels

Mount the axles: Cut a strip of wood that is 2″ (5cm) wide.

Mark the location of axles by drawing two lines, one on each end of the car, parallel to the front or back side.

On the axle lines, mark two points that are 1/4″ (6mm) away from each side. Insert one eye screw in each of the points.

Eye screws are used to hold the axles. Insert the axle and make sure it is level and it can spin freely. If necessary, adjust the eye screws.

Cut some plastic tubes or straws and use them as the spacer in both sides.

Insert the wheels. Wheels may be inserted while the axle is in position.

You can also insert the axle into one wheel and then pass it through the eye screws.

At the end your simple car will look like this. You can use it the way it is or you can turn it over as shown in the picture bellow.

In the model shown here, the gears are built in the rear slicks (rear wheels). With plain wheels, you had to insert a pulley or gear in the same axle with one wheel.

If you don’t need to install pulleys or gears, continue with step 2.

Also read the second method of mounting the axle.

To mount a pulley or gear next to one wheel, it is a good idea to cut some space for that on your chassis; otherwise, one wheel will stand out and your model will not have a symmetrical shape. The size of this space may vary depending on the size of your pulley or gear.

(3/8″ x 1 1/2″ cut is shown in this example)

This is how a pulley or gear may be mounted beside one of the wheels. The pulley or gear must have a hole matching the axle diameter and must feet snugly. Some pulleys and gears require a plastic insert and some drilling in order to adapt the diameter of the axle you are using.

After mounting, make sure that the wheels can spin freely. If necessary, mount a metal washer between the spacer and eye screws.

Second methods of mounting the axle

You may not have eye screws for mounting the axles. This is an alternate method for mounting wheels and axle.

Insert the axle in one wheel, slide a washer onto it. Insert a 5 1/2″ straw over it and finally insert another washer and another wheel.

Your final wheels and axle will look like this. Hold the straw and spin the wheels. Make sure the wheels can spin freely. If necessary, make some adjustments.

Cut 4 pieces of 2″ (5cm) long wood strips and glue them about 1/5″ (5mm) apart where you want to mount the axles.

Insert the axle in the space between the strips and secure them in place using some glue. Cover it with a strip of cardboard or heavy construction paper.

Note that the glue will touch the straw, not the axle. This is how the bottom of your car will look like after covering the axle holder with a strip of paper.

Step 2: Mount the motor

Insert the small gear or pulley onto the motor’s shaft. Place the motor on the self adhesive motor mount and strap it securely and snugly.

Place the motor on the car while the car is on a flat surface. Move it towards the gears until the gears engage. Mark the location of the motor. Avoid too much pressure on the gears because it will increase the friction and make it difficult for the car to move.

If you use pulleys to transmit force, motor must be mounted away from the pulley so that the rubber belt is slightly stretched.

Carefully peal off the protective cover of the adhesive pad. Make sure you will not remove the adhesive pad itself. Place the motor where you already marked. Push it down firmly to stick in place.

Step 3: Mount the solar panel

Place the solar panel on the car. Connect the solar panel to the motor (if they are not already connected).

The solar panel may be mounted horizontally or slanted. It may be secured in place using a few pieces of clear tape.

Take the car outside in a sunny location and test it. Does the motor run while you have the car in your hand? Do the wheels spin? Now place the car on a smooth flat surface so that the solar panel is faced to the sun. Does it run on the ground?

The final solar car you make may be different based on the materials you use, the design implementation and additional decorations you may add.

Decoration may include wooden or cardboard pieces you can add or paints you may use.

Experiment the angle of the sun: How does the angle of sun rays affect the speed of a solar car?

• Mount the solar panel horizontal. You may use cardboard or Styrofoam and some tape to support it.
• Find a flat and smooth surface for your test. If the ground is not smooth, tape sheets of construction paper on the ground to make a smooth runway.
• Bring you car to the beginning of the runway while the solar panel is covered by a black paper or black cloth.
• Set the timer or stopwatch and immediately remove the black paper or cloth. Also make sure that nothing else is blocking the sunlight.
• Stop timing immediately at the end of the runway. Record the travel time. Divide the travel distance to travel time to calculate the speed. Repeat this 3 times.
• Repeat the steps 3 to 5 at least 5 times during a sunny day with clear sky. Each time also measure and record the angle of the sun.
• Record you findings in a table like this:

How to measure the angle of the sunlight?

Hold a meter stick vertically on the ground. Measure the length of the shadow. Now that you know the length of the meter stick’s shadow, plug your measurement into the calculator below to determine the angle of the sun above the horizon.

Materials and Equipment:

This is a sample list of materials.

• Solar Cell (MiniScience product code SOLARP.6W)
• DC motor (MiniScience product code RE140RA)

If you don’t have the materials to construct a solar car, you can order a kit from MiniScience.com. It is available both as a single pack and class pack. Kit content may be different from the images shown in this page.

Results of Experiment (Observation):

Experiments are often done in series. A series of experiments can be done by changing one variable a different amount each time. A series of experiments is made up of separate experimental “runs.” During each run you make a measurement of how much the variable affected the system under study. For each run, a different amount of change in the variable is used. This produces a different amount of response in the system. You measure this response, or record data, in a table for this purpose. This is considered “raw data” since it has not been processed or interpreted yet. When raw data gets processed mathematically, for example, it becomes results.

Calculations:

If you do any calculations, write your calculations in this section of your report.

Summary of Results:

Summarize what happened. This can be in the form of a table of processed numerical data, or graphs. It could also be a written statement of what occurred during experiments.

It is from calculations using recorded data that tables and graphs are made. Studying tables and graphs, we can see trends that tell us how different variables cause our observations. Based on these trends, we can draw conclusions about the system under study. These conclusions help us confirm or deny our original hypothesis. Often, mathematical equations can be made from graphs. These equations allow us to predict how a change will affect the system without the need to do additional experiments. Advanced levels of experimental science rely heavily on graphical and mathematical analysis of data. At this level, science becomes even more interesting and powerful.

Conclusion:

Using the trends in your experimental data and your experimental observations, try to answer your original questions. Is your hypothesis correct? Now is the time to pull together what happened, and assess the experiments you did.

Related Questions & Answers:

What you have learned may allow you to answer other questions. Many questions are related. Several new questions may have occurred to you while doing experiments. You may now be able to understand or verify things that you discovered when gathering information for the project. Questions lead to more questions, which lead to additional hypothesis that need to be tested.

Possible Errors:

If you did not observe anything different than what happened with your control, the variable you changed may not affect the system you are investigating. If you did not observe a consistent, reproducible trend in your series of experimental runs there may be experimental errors affecting your results. The first thing to check is how you are making your measurements. Is the measurement method questionable or unreliable? Maybe you are reading a scale incorrectly, or maybe the measuring instrument is working erratically.

If you determine that experimental errors are influencing your results, carefully rethink the design of your experiments. Review each step of the procedure to find sources of potential errors. If possible, have a scientist review the procedure with you. Sometimes the designer of an experiment can miss the obvious.

References:

List your references in this section of your report.

It is always important for students, parents and teachers to know a good source for science related equipment and supplies they need for their science activities. Please note that many online stores for science supplies are managed by MiniScience.

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Solar Energy Experiment - Teach kids about converting light to energy

Posted by Admin / in Energy & Electricity Experiments

Experimenting with small solar panels is helpful in learning how solar energy works. Small scale solar panels are capable of producing only a few watts of power, but they can teach us much more about how larger solar panels are used to help power homes. Small solar panels work the same way that their larger counterparts do, by taking energy from the sun through photovoltaic cells and directly powering a DC electrical device or by storing the energy for later use in a rechargeable battery. Small solar panels are available from a number of sources including Radio Shack and Amazon. The solar panel pictured in the example was purchased from Harbor Freight Tools. Amazon has the Elenco Solar Educational Kit which also includes a 5 VDC motor to match the 5 volt solar panel. The solar panel pictured has a selectable output voltage selector and a built-in blocking diode to allow rechargeable battery changing. Blocking diodes in short will allow voltage to pass only in one direction. This is useful in the case of a solar panel being used to charge batteries because it it were not present the batteries would be discharged back to the photovoltaic cells at night when there is no sunlight to provide power. There is some loss of energy by passing the voltage through a blocking diode, but it is useful for experimentation. Many full-scale solar panel arrays use low-loss Schottky diodes and a fuse between the batteries and each solar panel.

Let's try a simple experiment with the solar panel by testing the output DC voltage and output current from the panel.

Materials Needed

• small solar panel
• A voltmeter or multimeter with probes
• Sunlight or an incandescent light source

EXPERIMENT STEPS

Step 1: Set up the solar panel under a good light source. Generally, direct sunlight will provide the full amount of voltage from the panel. Incandescent light will only provide approximately 50 percent to 75 percent of the stated voltage output of the panels from a distance of about 5 feet from the light source (60 watts). For higher wattage bulbs or closer distances, the output voltage will be higher.

Step 2: Connect the output black (-), negative lead from the solar panel to the negative probe wire of the voltmeter. Connect the output red (+), positive lead from the solar panel to the positive probe wire of the voltmeter. Alligator clips make the connection very easy.

Step 3: Set the voltmeter to test for DC voltage. It may be necessary to set it to a factored dial setting on the voltmeter. Set the meter to DC test, 10 if there are different test settings. Turn on the voltmeter.

Step 4: Observe the voltmeter voltage reading.

Step 5: Set the voltmeter to test for DC current. It may be necessary to set it to a factored dial setting on the voltmeter.

Step 6: Observe the voltmeter current reading.

Step 7: The example solar panel model has a selectable output switch. Changing the switch setting varies both the output voltage and output current. The higher the voltage output the lower the current and vice versa. If your solar panel has selectable settings, try repeating Steps 3-6 with different output settings. If not, try moving the solar panel closer and further away from the light source while output readings are observed.

SCIENCE LEARNED

Solar panels are capable of producing electricity from not only sunlight, but also from artificial light sources. The amount of voltage produced from a small solar panel is surprisingly good, however, the amount of current produced from this same solar panel is minimal. To produce enough electricity to be useful, much larger solar panels are required. We also found that directing the panels towards the light source helps to maximize the energy output. In practice, the position of solar panels is optimized to receive the most amount of sunlight possible. Many times, solar fields also include servo motors to help change the position of the solar panel to track the sun's position using a photoresistor sensor.

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Science Projects > Earth & Space Projects > Learn About Solar Energy Science Projects  

Learn About Solar Energy Science Projects

Solar Science Projects

Absorb or reflect, what you need:.

• 2 clear glass pie plates or bowls
• 1 sheet of black construction paper
• 1 sheet of white construction paper
• 2 ice cubes
• A sunny spot outside

What You Do:

1. Place the sheets of black and white paper on a driveway or sidewalk in the sun. (The papers should not be touching each other. Your hand should fit in the space between them.)

2. Set a pie plate on top of each sheet of paper and put an ice cube in the middle of each pie plate.

3. After 5 minutes, check on the ice cubes to see which one has melted the most.

4. If they haven’t melted much, check again in 5 more minutes. Keep checking until the ice in one of the pie plates has completely melted. It could take more than 30 minutes for the ice to melt all the way, depending on how hot it is where you live.

5. Which ice cube melted faster – the one on the white paper or the black paper? Feel the sheets of paper. Which one feels warmest? Touch the dishes too, just be careful because the glass can get pretty hot!

What Happened:

The ice in the dish with black paper under it should have melted first. Both pieces probably started to melt at about the same time, but the one on black probably melted completely into a puddle of water first. Why did it melt before the one on the white paper?

Glass also absorbs heat, so even if you had not put any paper under the dishes, the ice still would have melted from being in the hot sun in glass dishes. Both ice cubes probably would have finished melting at about the same time without the black or white paper, though. The black paper absorbed even more of the sun’s energy (light and heat) than the glass dish, making the ice melt faster. The white paper reflected most of the sun’s energy that hit it, keeping the dish and the ice in it cooler for longer so it took longer to melt. After the ice had melted, the paper and the dishes probably felt very warm (except for in the spot where the ice was keeping it cool). In fact, the dish on top of the black paper probably even felt hot when you touched it! Can you explain why? (Hint: it’s the same reason that the ice melted!)

You can make fun pictures by using the sun’s power to make the color fade from construction paper! This project uses repositionable glue, which you can find in most stores that sell office or school supplies. (Elmer’s and Scotch brands both make this type of glue.) You could also do the project by setting objects on your paper and laying it flat in the sun instead of using the special glue.

• dark colors of construction paper
• solid objects with interesting shapes that you can trace around (leaves, buttons, coins, and plastic toys work well)
• repositionable glue (Optional. Made by Elmer’s or Scotch brands and available where office or school supplies are sold.)
• a window that gets lots of sunlight

1. Trace around your objects on construction paper and cut out each shape. Or, you can draw your own shapes and cut them out. Be creative! You could even draw letters to spell your name.

2. Arrange the paper shapes onto a new sheet of dark-colored construction paper to make a nice design.

3. Use the repositionable glue to stick each shape to your picture. Don’t use much glue though, or it will be hard to peel your shapes off later.

4. Turn the shapes towards the window and tape the corners of your picture to the window to hold it in place.

5. Leave your picture in the window for a couple days or until you notice that the color of the construction paper has started to fade (compare it to a new piece of the same color of paper to see if it has changed).

6. When it is quite a bit lighter than it was when you started (it might take up to a week to get light enough; it depends on how many sunny days you have!), untape the picture from the window and peel off the shapes; they should come off pretty easily, just do it slowly to make sure your picture doesn’t tear.

Have you ever left an art project made from construction paper in the sun for too long? If so, you probably noticed that the color started to fade and the paper ended up a lot lighter than it once was. In this project, you covered parts of the paper with paper shapes, then when you left your picture in the sunlight, it started to fade. Since the shapes blocked sunlight from hitting the parts of the paper that they covered, you could see the original color of the paper after you peeled off the shapes! The extra layer of paper from the shapes protected those parts of the paper from the sun’s rays that faded the color from the rest of the sheet of paper.

Sunlight contains ultraviolet (or UV) rays – the same rays that will give you a sunburn if you are in the sun for too long without sunscreen on. Those rays cause chemical reactions in the dye that gives construction paper its color. When the paper absorbs the rays of light, a chemical reaction breaks down the dyes so they aren’t as bright. You can learn more about chemical reactions here . UV rays can lighten a lot of things. Some people’s hair turns a lighter color when they are in a lot of sunlight. Hanging white laundry outside in the sun to dry can make it look whiter also.

Solar Science Lesson

About the sun.

The sun is the biggest, brightest, and hottest source of light available to us on the earth. It is in the center of our solar system and all the other planets, including Earth, spin around it. Read our newsletter about the solar system to learn more.

Did you know that the sun is actually a star? The outside of the sun (its surface) is covered with very hot gases. The different gases mix together and cause reactions that are called nuclear reactions . Nuclear reactions create a lot of energy, which makes the sun very hot. The heat creates a lot of light too. Did you know that the sun is so bright that it will damage your eyes if you look directly at it? The light from the sun can also hurt your skin. Have you ever had a sunburn? Although sun rays can hurt our bodies if we aren’t careful, nothing would be able to live on the earth without the energy we get from the sun in the forms of heat and light. Plants use energy from the sun to make food, then animals and humans eat plants for food. Without the sun, Earth would be too cold for anyone or anything to live.

The sun is 93 million miles away from Earth. If it were possible to drive from here to there, it would take over 150 years driving at 70 miles per hour (about the same speed you would travel on a highway)! However, light travels very fast and can get from the sun to the earth in about 8 minutes! Here is a close-up picture of the Sun from NASA.

What Is Solar Energy?

Solar energy is light and heat that comes from the sun. Solar means sun and energy is what we need in order to do things. We use energy to do things like eat breakfast and play outside. Energy is also in things around us, like light and heat. The sun shines in the day, giving us light. It also makes the earth warmer, giving us heat. You can learn more about energy here . Solar energy is known as renewable energy , which means that it can never run out.

What Can Solar Energy Be Used For?

– Inside a greenhouse to keep the temperature warm enough for plants to grow all year, even in the winter! (Think about this: on a hot summer day, when a car is parked in the sun for awhile, the inside of the car gets very hot because the car absorbs heat from the sun and everything warms up. That is the same way a greenhouse works.) – To dry clothes on a clothesline. – To warm up water to give a dog a bath outside. – To heat up the water in a swimming pool. – You can even use the sun’s heat to make salt water drinkable! This project shows you how.

Here are some good things about solar power:

• It can never be used up. This means that it is renewable energy .
• After a solar panel is paid for, solar energy is free!
• It can be used in places where electricity is not available, like far away from cities, up in mountains, or even on boats in the ocean!
• It does not release anything into the air. Some kinds of energy release things that are harmful to the environment, people, and animals.
• Solar panels last a long time, usually about 30-40 years!

These are some problems with solar power:

• Solar panels cost a lot. They are expensive to make and keep because they are made of glass and fragile minerals that can break easily, costing money to fix.
• It is only available when the sun is around – that means it won’t work when it’s cloudy or at nighttime!
• It takes lots of space to hold the large solar panels that are needed to make enough electricity to keep large things, like your house, running smoothly.

Science Words

Reflection  – when light or heat hits an object and bounces back in the opposite direction.

Absorption  – when light or heat is collected or soaked up by an object.

Nuclear reactions  – reactions that take place between hot gases on the sun. These reactions release energy.

Solar energy  – light and heat that comes from the sun and can be used to do work.

Renewable energy  – a source of energy that can never be used up or run out. Energy that comes from the sun, water, or wind are examples.

Printable Worksheet

Print out this page on a sheet of heavy paper or cardstock. Kids can color the pictures and cut out the squares to make a matching game. Half of the squares show a way to use solar energy as an alternative to the picture shown on the other squares. Place all the squares face down and take turns flipping two over per turn to find the ones that go together. Talk about ways to save energy from other sources by using the sun’s power.

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Solar Car Project

We all need to encourage alternative forms of transportation, as we find a lack of supply of petroleum products and also increase in environmental pollution . A car that runs on solar energy – Solar Car – are emerging these days addressing these issues. It uses solar cell panels to power up the engine instead of oil petroleum products as a fuel. By solar car project, you will experience the concept of solar energy and how it generates electric energy to start the engine.

Given here is a simple solar car project that you can try at home yourself using materials that easily available. One understands the working principle of a solar car making the project given here.

Materials Required

• Motor mount
• Four wheels
• Dowel for axles
• Traction bands
• Eyelets or washers
• Procedure sheet
• Soldering iron
• Craft knife
• Cut a 2-inch wide strip of wood.
• Mark axles by drawing two lines and mark two points around 6 mm away from each side.
• Each screw will hold the axles, so insert one eye screw in each of the points.
• Insert axle and ensure the alignment is straight and can spin freely. Later use a piece of straw and place them as a spacer on both sides.
• After making space for the wheels, now insert wheels on all four sides. If your rear wheels are plain, you need to insert a gear or a pulley next to the rear wheel.
• Now, insert a small pulley or a gear onto the shaft of the DC motor. Now place the motor on the mount and strap it securely.
• Place it on the motor mount on the car, make sure the gears one on the wheel and another on the shaft are engaged.
• Place the solar panel on the car and connect all the required wires to the motor. Note that the solar cell panel is placed slanted.
• Finally, take your solar car in a sunny location and test it!

Observation

In this experiment, you will learn how to work with a solar cell panel and a DC motor. Take your solar car in a sunny location to test. Place the car on a flat smooth surface and make sure the solar panel is faced to the sun. You can also test the solar car indoor using a strong light replacing the sunlight. Well, you can customize the solar car by designing the wooden sheet, adding decoration, and more.

Hope you understood the step-by-step procedure of building a solar car. Stay tuned with BYJU’S to learn more about other Physics related projects.

Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs

What is solar energy.

It is the form of energy that is received in the form of light and heat from the sun.

Solar energy is renewable or nonrenewable form of energy?

Solar energy is a renewable, clean, and inexhaustible form of energy.

Do solar cars use petroleum products as fuel?

State true or false: solar cars use solar cell panels to power up the engine., watch the video to learn exciting facts about the sun.

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FREE K-12 standards-aligned STEM

curriculum for educators everywhere!

Find more at TeachEngineering.org .

• TeachEngineering
• Concentrating on the Sun with Photovoltaic Solar Panels

Hands-on Activity Concentrating on the Sun with Photovoltaic Solar Panels

Grade Level: 10 (9-12)

Total time may be split over a few different periods and may vary, depending on the class and project iterations.

In addition, this activity requires some non-expendable (and reusable) items for each group. See Materials List for details.

Group Size: 2

Activity Dependency: Concentrated Solar Power

Subject Areas: Data Analysis and Probability, Measurement, Physical Science, Science and Technology

NGSS Performance Expectations:

Curriculum in this Unit Units serve as guides to a particular content or subject area. Nested under units are lessons (in purple) and hands-on activities (in blue). Note that not all lessons and activities will exist under a unit, and instead may exist as "standalone" curriculum.

• A New Angle on Photovoltaic Solar Panel Efficiency
• Photovoltaics & Temperature: Ice, Ice, PV!
• Pointing at Maximum Power for PV

TE Newsletter

Engineering connection, learning objectives, materials list, worksheets and attachments, more curriculum like this, pre-req knowledge, introduction/motivation, vocabulary/definitions, investigating questions, troubleshooting tips, activity extensions, activity scaling, additional multimedia support, user comments & tips.

Engineers design and build photovoltaic panels to maximize their efficiency. Engineers work in teams to design and test new ways of concentrating solar radiation onto PV panels and calculate the best way to install panels and reflectors so each PV panel produces the maximum amount of electricity possible.

After this activity, students should be able to:

• Explain why concentrated PV systems can increase the output of photovoltaic panels.
• Explain how certain angles between a photovoltaic panel and reflector increase or decrease the panel's power output.

Educational Standards Each TeachEngineering lesson or activity is correlated to one or more K-12 science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) educational standards. All 100,000+ K-12 STEM standards covered in TeachEngineering are collected, maintained and packaged by the Achievement Standards Network (ASN) , a project of D2L (www.achievementstandards.org). In the ASN, standards are hierarchically structured: first by source; e.g. , by state; within source by type; e.g. , science or mathematics; within type by subtype, then by grade, etc .

Ngss: next generation science standards - science.

Common Core State Standards - Math

View aligned curriculum

Do you agree with this alignment? Thanks for your feedback!

International Technology and Engineering Educators Association - Technology

State standards, colorado - math, colorado - science.

Each group needs:

• mini PV panel ($10-30; available online; do a product search for "small solar panel" or see the Solar Panel Source Information attachment in the Photovoltaic Efficiency unit )
• alligator clips
• multimeter ($10; available online; see the Solar Multimeter Source Information attachment in the Photovoltaic Efficiency unit ) (experiment can be run with either one or two multimeters per group, see Procedure section for details)
• cardboard, a 2 ft x 2 ft (.6 m x .6 m) piece
• protractor (or use attached Protractor Printout , two per sheet, print out and cut apart)
• aluminum foil
• Investigation Worksheet , one per person
• (if not using the sun as light source) clamp or desk lamp with 100W incandescent bulb (~$8; best for each group to have their own, but teams can share if necessary)

To share with the entire class:

• duct or masking tape
• paper and pencils, for drawing and sharing design ideas

Note : The non-expendable items (mini PV panels, multimeters, wires with alligator clamps, lamp and light bulb) are reusable for the entire four-lesson unit, as well as other projects.

Familiarity with the material covered in the associated lesson and curricular unit. Ability to read data from charts, and record and graph data on scatter plots.

Throughout this unit, we have learned about the importance of maximizing the efficiency of photovoltaic panels and different ways engineers maximize power output. Today, we're going to design, build and test small planar reflectors, and examine how reflecting and concentrating light onto a PV panel can help increase its power output. PV panels are expensive, so it is important to maximize the amount of power each individual panel produces. We can do this by increasing the amount of solar radiation that hits the panel.

Engineers rarely make the best designs on their first try. In this design project, your team will test your designs many times to see if you can find a way to make your design a little better each time. But, you cannot test forever; so as in all engineering projects, you have a time constraint, and when that time is up, your design will be tested as it is.

Each group has access to all the materials and tools needed to test their designs. Make sure to test different aspects of the designs individually before creating a final reflector design. For example, you may want to test different reflector angles, or test what happens if the foil is more or less crinkled. You may want to experiment with different reflector shapes, or see what happens if you curve them. You are completely free to be creative with your designs, as long as you stay within the material and time constraints. In the end, you want to have the design that creates the highest increase in the current output of the PV panel.

For the final design competition, we will use the same light, same panel and same placement for all reflector designs. This means that you must design your reflector systems so that they are not attached to a specific PV panel, but are free standing. Your designs also must let the PV panel lie flat on the ground; do not create a design that lifts the panel in any way.

During the competition, apply your new knowledge of solar reflecting techniques by guessing the current output of each panel and reflector system before it is tested. After a group presents their design, guess the current output you think it will create, and record this value on your worksheet. Your goal is to have the most accurate estimates, showing that you are now an engineer who understands the basics of how solar concentration systems work.

It is important to test the lamps, multimeters and solar panel devices before attempting to conduct the final design competition. The multimeters have many different settings that should be understood; this information can easily be found online or in the multimeter manual. For this experiment, DC current is measured. The exact current setting to use depends on the power of the light, efficiency of the panels, and distance between the panel and light. You want the setting that gives the most accuracy in measurement for comparing the reflector designs.

It is also important to measure the current output of the panel before each reflector design is tested. The current is sensitive to the light intensity, which may change slightly over time as the light warms up, or be affected by light through windows. The intensity can easily be disturbed by moving the panel, so it is important to try to minimize this throughout the competition by taping the panel to the floor or outlining exactly where it should be placed.

When conducting the competition, it is helpful to gather all the students around the area where the panels are being tested so they can clearly see the designs. Placing the panel on the floor and clamping the lamp directly above it on a desk is one potential set-up (see Figure 2), but it is important to make sure that students do not bump or move items during the experiment. Having each group give a short presentation on their design before testing is a great way for them to give other students insight into their design, and allowing audience questions stimulates interaction among all students.

To find solutions to real-world problems, engineers follow the steps of the engineering design process. See image above for the steps. See more about the engineering design process at https://www.teachengineering.org/engrdesignprocess.php

Before the Activity

• Gather materials.
• Make copies of the Investigation Worksheets .
• Test the panels and multimeters to make sure all items are working properly.
• (Do this in advance or while students are creating/testing their designs.) Set up a final competition testing area. Place a lamp on a desk about one meter above the floor. Use tape to mark off an area that students are not permitted to cross so that the lamp is not moved during the final testing (see Figure 2). Also mark an area where the panel is to be placed.

With the Students

• As necessary, review the associated lesson concepts to make sure students understand the theory behind this activity.
• Conduct the Introduction/Motivation section with the students.
• Give the students an opportunity to ask any questions they may have on the process for the activity and competition.
• Divide the class into groups of two students each.
• Review the main steps of the engineering design process: brainstorm, design, analyze, build, test and re-design to improve. Then discuss the project constraints and requirements (real-world engineering design projects have constraints and requirements):
• Set a project time limit.
• Limit the amount and size of materials.
• Aluminum foil must be wrapped on the cardboard; it cannot be used separately. The purpose of the foil is to provide a reflective surface for the sturdy cardboard.
• During the final test, the reflector must stand up on its own without a student holding it.
• Have teams brainstorm and draw design ideas.
• Have the groups make plans for testing a few aspects of their designs. (Test only one variable at a time.)
• Give groups time to gather materials and tools for testing.

• Keep students on task to meet the deadline for completing their final reflector designs.

• Bring the students together and review the process for conducting the final design (see the Introduction/Motivation section for some description).
• Hand out the worksheets for the students to record data from the experiments and make their current output estimate for each group.
• Have the first team present. Have each group give a short presentation on their design before testing, and answer a few questions posed by other students.
• Measure the current output of the panel. Then turn off the lamp.
• Tell the students: "Apply your new knowledge of solar reflecting techniques by guessing the current output of each panel and reflector system before it is tested. After a group presents their design, guess the current output you think it will create, and record this value on your worksheet. Your goal is to have the most accurate estimates, showing that you are now an engineer who understands the basics of how solar concentration systems work." Give students time to record data on the panel and make their current estimate.
• Have a few students share their estimates with the entire class. (This helps keep students interested and engaged.)
• Place the reflector over the PV panel and turn on the lamp. (Drum roll is optional.)
• Have students record the current output on their worksheets.
• Repeat steps 14 through 19 for all groups. Make sure students do not bump or move items during the competition.
• Have the students complete the calculations on their worksheets.
• Discuss the results of the competition as a class and ask the students to describe what they have learned from this activity.

concentrated photovoltaic system: (CPV) A system designed to concentrate sunlight onto a PV panel or series of panels in order to increase their power output.

design iteration: An improvement in the design due to testing and redesigning.

irradiance: Power per unit area of solar energy hitting a surface.

planar reflector: A reflective panel used to reflect sunlight in order to increase the power output of a photovoltaic panel.

Pre-Activity Assessment

Think, Write, Swap: Assess student comprehension by having each student individually write his/her answers to the following questions:

• Why would an engineer design, build and test a concentrating PV system?
• What is a planar photovoltaic reflector?
• What sort of materials would be the best for designing a reflector?

Have students swap papers with another iu1student and discuss whether their answers are similar or different. Then ask several students to share their answers with the class.

Activity Embedded Assessment

Process Explanation : Talk with each group as they work on their experiment set-ups to be sure they understand the concepts and are correctly recording data. Let teams who have their experiments set up correctly visit and help other groups with their set-ups.

Post-Activity Assessment

Graphing: Have students graph and discuss their results with the class.

Group Presentations: Have each group present their experimental results and final designs in a brief presentation to the class before the final competition testing.

• What is the best angle to place reflectors?
• What other factors do you think affect the ability of a reflector to improve the current output of a panel?
• How do you think the current output would be affected if your reflector system were used on a stationary panel on a roof as the sun changes position in the sky?

Safety Issues

Encourage students to be gentle and careful with the solar panels and equipment.

Be aware that the lamps can become very hot when on.

If you go outside, adjust the multimeters to a higher current setting to account for the brightness of the sun. (The 10A setting may require adjusting the position of the positive lead.) If you remain inside, use incandescent lamps for this activity, not CFLs.

Promote functionality and creativity. If time permits, have students create a commercial or marketing strategy for their concentrator in which the engineering and aesthetic features are highlighted.

• For lower grades, conduct this activity as a class demonstration, and/or instead of using the multimeter, use small buzzers that change volume with changing current. This way, rather than filling out the worksheet with measurements, students can observe how the loudness of the buzzer increases or decreases as the angle between the solar panel and the reflector is changed or as a reflector is added to the panel. Buzzers are inexpensive ($4) and can be found at electronics and hardware stores such as RadioShack or online at http://www.scientificsonline.com/.
• For upper grades, require more in-depth presentations and explanations of the purpose and theory behind reflectors.

For a description of the engineering design process, see https://www.teachengineering.org/engrdesignprocess.php

Students learn how the total solar irradiance hitting a photovoltaic (PV) panel can be increased through the use of a concentrating device, such as a reflector or lens.

Students learn about the daily and annual cycles of solar angles used in power calculations to maximize photovoltaic power generation. They gain an overview of solar tracking systems that improve PV panel efficiency by following the sun through the sky.

Students learn how the sun can be used for energy. They learn about passive solar heating, lighting and cooking, and active solar engineering technologies (such as photovoltaic arrays and concentrating mirrors) that generate electricity.

Students explore how the efficiency of a solar photovoltaic (PV) panel is affected by the ambient temperature. They learn how engineers predict the power output of a PV panel at different temperatures and examine some real-world engineering applications used to control the temperature of PV panels.

Contributors

Supporting program, acknowledgements.

The contents of these digital library curricula were developed by the Integrated Teaching and Learning Program under National Science Foundation GK-12 grant no. 0338326. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policies of the National Science Foundation, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.

Last modified: October 22, 2020

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Renewable energy project

Make a Solar Car

• 2  solar cells
• 2-4  alligator clip leads
• Rubber bands
• Small electric motor 
• Plastic bottle caps, film canister caps, toy wheels such as K'nex, etc.
• Stiff wire or wooden shish-kabob skewers
• Straws or eye screws to mount the axles
• Cardboard milk carton, water bottle, cardboard, foam board, or similar materials

DIY Solar Car in 14 Steps

Choose a material for the car body, which is called the chassis. Think carefully about this: you want something strong, but also something lightweight so it needs less power for the motor to move it. (But be careful — if it's too light, it can easily get blown about by the wind.) A big part of engineering is finding the right balance between weight and strength.

Use a nail to poke a small hole in the center of your wheels.

Make sure the stiff wire or wooden skewers you use for axles fit in the holes tightly.

Take an extra cap and cut off the sides, leaving just the top part, which usually has a small inner rim to help keep the bottle from leaking.

Glue this cap to one of your wheels. You have just created a pulley for your driving wheel; the inner rim of the extra bottle cap will support your car's drive belt. (You can try using a film canister cap for this step instead of cutting a bottle cap. If you are using toy wheels like K'nex, you can just use a smaller wheel mounted on the inside of your main wheel to act as the pulley.)

Now, mount your axles onto the chassis. Depending on what your chassis is made of, you can thread the axle through eye screws mounted on the bottom. Another easy method is to tape straws on the underside of the chassis and threads the axles through them.

Attach the small motor pulley to the motor shaft.

Determine where to mount the motor by connecting the driving pulley with the motor pulley using an elastic band as a drive belt. Position the motor so the band is slightly stretched (but don't stretch it too much!). Mount the motor with glue or tape it in between a small frame of wood or cardboard blocks.

Use clear plastic tape to attach the two solar cells together side-by-side; then connect them in a series circuit using the alligator clip leads.

Connect the positive terminal of one cell to the negative terminal of the other.

Connect the remaining terminals to the motor. If the motor spins the wrong way, switch the leads where they connect to the motor.

Once it's connected properly, use tape to help keep the wires under control.

Mount the solar cells on the chassis at an angle where they will receive the most Sun.

Take your car outside to a sunny sidewalk, connect the drive belt, and watch it go!

Designing and building a car from scratch involves a lot of perseverance and trial and error, so don't be discouraged if yours doesn't work right away. Experiment to see if you can improve the design of your DIY solar car.

Get the PDF Version of this Project

The sun: the ultimate power source

Solar Power Science Lesson

The law of conservation of energy.

The Law of Conservation of Energy says that energy can't be created or destroyed, but can change its form. And that's what happens with energy from the Sun — it changes into lots of different forms:

• Plants convert light energy from the Sun into chemical energy (food) by the process of photosynthesis. Animals eat plants and use chemical energy for all their activities.
• Heat energy from the Sun impacts changing weather patterns that produce wind. Wind turbines then convert wind power into electrical energy.
• Right now, much of human activity uses energy from fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. These energy sources are created over very long periods of time from decayed and fossilized living matter (animals and plants), and the energy in that living matter originally came from the Sun through photosynthesis.

The Sun provides more energy to the Earth in one hour than the whole planet needs in a year. Imagine if we could capture that energy directly and convert it to a form that could power our cities, homes, and cars! Many scientists around the world are researching how we can improve our use of the Sun's energy. One way is to use solar solar panels to collect solar energy to heat air and water.

Another way is to use photovoltaic (PV) cells, also called solar cells, to convert sunlight directly into electricity. ('Photovoltaic' essentially means 'light electricity'.) PV cells use a material such as silicon to absorb energy from sunlight. 

When the cell is hooked up in a circuit with wires, the electricity will power a load (light bulb, car motor , etc.) you connect to its path. PV cells today are still only able to capture a small fraction of the Sun's energy, so acres of them are necessary to collect enough light to create electricity on a large scale.

A lot more scientific work needs to be done to make them more efficient and take up less space. Despite the challenges, solar panels are used to power many things such as emergency signs, school crossing lights, and more. Many people are also able to power their homes by mounting solar panels on the roof, and this will only get easier as the technology continues to advance.

This solar race car experiment kit provides an excellent, hands-on learning experience for students. Use this solar car kit to enhance your kids' STEM skills and studies (science, technology, engineering and math)!

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Dive Deeper

Once you've completed your car, think about other ways you could experiment with solar power.

Could you build a solar boat or water pump?

Could you  perform electrolysis to divide water into hydrogen and oxygen using a solar panel? How can we harness the amazing power of the Sun?

Maybe you'll be the next scientist to help find out!  

View Details:

Experiment with "green energy" on a small scale! This economical solar powered car operates on either sunlight or a rechargeable AA battery.

This hands-on kit provides the materials to build and experiment with a balloon racer and a rubber band racer.

More Projects and Experiments

Build a Solar Oven

Balloon Rocket Car Project

Build a Simple Motor

Saltwater Circuit Experiment

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Science project, how to make a solar oven.

There are lots of great reasons to learn how to make a solar oven! Maybe you’re going camping. Maybe you’re interested in learning about different ways to concentrate the sun’s energy. Maybe you’re interested in methods of cooking that don’t add greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere. Maybe you’re just hungry! In any case, as long as you’re patient and willing to move your oven where the sun is, you’ll be rewarded with some hot, yummy food.

Several scientific phenomena are involved in making your oven the best heater it can be. Heat is the form of energy (sometimes called thermal energy) that is transferred by a difference in temperature. You want to transfer the sun’s heat to your solar over. Reflection is the throwing back of light, heat or sound by a body or surface, like a mirror. The shiny foil you’ll use in your oven will reflect the sun’s light and heat inside your oven. During absorbtion , energy is taken into a material rather than reflected. You will line the inside of your oven with black paper so it can absorb the light and heat being reflected into it. Another energy process you should be familiar with for this project is convection , which is the transfer of heat by the movement of a gas or liquid. You’ll use plastic wrap to make your oven airtight so the air warmed by the sun doesn’t leave your oven through convection.  One final energy term important to this project is insulation . Insulating materials prevent heat leaving your oven through radiation . That’s why you are going to line the inside of your oven with a cheap and effective insulator—newspaper!

Build and use a simple solar oven.

• Cardboard pizza box
• Box cutter or scissors
• Aluminum foil
• Clear type of tape
• Black construction paper
• Plastic wrap or large, transparent plastic bag
• Dish or pie plate
• Cooking Ingredients, like those for some mores  or nachos ( don’t use your oven to prepare raw meat )
• Optional: a thermometer that goes up to 250 degrees F.  
• Clean any stray bits of cheese, sauce or crumbs out of your pizza box.
• Using the ruler and pencil, draw a square one inch in from the edges of the top of the box .
• Use the box cutter or knife to cut out three of the four sides of the square.
• Make a crease along the uncut side of the square to create a flap that stands up.
• Cut a piece of aluminum foil large enough to cover the inner side of the cardboard flap.
• Wrap the foil tightly, and secure with tape.  What purpose does the foil serve ?
• Line the bottom of the pizza box with black construction paper.  What purpose does the black paper serve?  Would white paper work as well? Why or why not?
• Cut two pieces of plastic wrap that are the same size as the top of the pizza box.
• Use tape to secure the plastic wrap to the inside edges of the square window you cut into the box. You are creating an airtight window.  Why do you want to make your oven airtight ?
• Roll up some newspaper pages into tubes to stuff into the sides of the box.  Make sure you are still able to close the lid of the pizza box.  Remember—what purpose does the newspaper serve?
• Now it is time to cook something! The best time to use your oven is between 11 AM and 2 PM. Make sure to set the food on a dish so you don’t mess up the interior of your oven.
• One food option is a solar s’more. Place one or two marshmallows on top of a graham cracker.  Put two to three squares of chocolate on top of the marshmallow.  Wait until it’s done cooking to top it with the second graham cracker.  Any idea why it might be smart to have the chocolate on top?
• You could also make nachos by placing grated cheese on top of tortilla chips, or use the oven to heat up leftovers or soup.  

On a sunny, warm day, your oven could reach about 200 degrees F.  You will notice that food takes longer to cook in a solar oven than a regular one.

Let’s recap: You covered the flap with foil so that the foil would reflect sunlight into the oven. The black paper on the bottom of your oven absorbed the sun’s energy (white paper would have reflected a lot of that energy). You made your oven airtight so that the warm air inside your oven would not leave the pizza box via convection. You put the newspaper inside your oven to insulate it and prevent heat loss through radiation. It is best to use your oven between 11 AM - 2 PM because that is when the sun’s rays are strongest. If you are making a s’more, it is good idea to have the chocolate on top because its dark color will absorb heat better than the lighter graham crackers. Food takes longer to cook in a solar oven because solar ovens don’t get as hot as conventional ovens. That’s okay for many dishes, and using an educational oven like the one you made yourself adds an extra special taste.

Going Further

Try making chocolate fondue or baked potatoes!  Find out how solar ovens are being distributed in areas where there is little fuel but lots of sun.

Related learning resources

Add to collection, create new collection, new collection, new collection>, sign up to start collecting.

Bookmark this to easily find it later. Then send your curated collection to your children, or put together your own custom lesson plan.

• For Teachers

• Everyday Activities
• Experiments

Solar Oven S’mores

Can you cook a s’more without a fire or electricity?

• Challenging
• A Little Messy

Harness the sun's energy!

Transform a pizza box into a solar oven to make a s'more (melted chocolate and marshmallow between two graham crackers). Try it! It’s fun AND delicious!

Watch the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FU6HYc00P_4

You Will Need

Aluminum Foil

Black Paper

Clear Plastic Wrap

2 Wooden Skewers

Exacto Knife or Scissors (both require adult supervision)

Graham Crackers*

Marshmallows*

A Sunny Day!

Materials & Directions PDF

**Note: This experiment can be done with other types of food - try making nachos with tortilla chips and shredded cheese, or english muffin pizzas. If experimenting with a group of children, ask parents about any potential food allergies when choosing foods.

• Ask student to create a testable question (a hypothesis). Example: Will it take longer than 10 minutes to cook the s'mores?
• Cut a three sided flap on the top of the pizza box (1-2” from all sides)
• Spread glue on the inside of the flap and cover with aluminum foil
• Lay black paper on the bottom of the box
• Tape layers of clear plastic across the opening that you cut in the lid.

• Place a graham cracker, chocolate bar, and marshmallow inside the oven and close the lid with the flap propped open with wooden skewers
• Aim your oven at the sun and check in every few minutes to check progress. Is the chocolate melting?

Discovery Questions

Beginning the experiment, during the experiment, after the experiment.

(We gave general answers to these, but some answers could vary based on how your experiment goes.)

How it works

Solar ovens use solar energy—light and heat from the sun—to cook food. The oven is designed to absorb more heat than it releases. Rays of sunlight come to the earth at an angle. The foil reflects the ray, and bounces it into the opening of the box. Once it has gone through the plastic wrap, it heats up the air that is trapped inside. The black paper absorbs the heat at the bottom of the oven, and the plastic wrap helps the heat stay inside the box to cook the food.

The concept behind creating the solar oven is similar to the concept of the Earth's greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is a warming of the Earth's surface and the air above it. It is caused by gases in the air that trap energy from the sun. These heat-trapping gases are called greenhouse gases. The most common greenhouse gases are water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane. These gases create a blanket-like effect, like the plastic wrap in your solar oven, that traps the sun’s heat. Without the greenhouse effect, Earth would be too cold for life to exist.

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UNSPECIFIED - MARCH 23: Close-up of a giant salamander (Megalobatrachus maximus) (Photo by De ... [+] Agostini via Getty Images/De Agostini via Getty Images)

Expansion of renewable energy production, particularly solar power, is the cornerstone of a global strategy to address climate change. However, there are concerns about its adverse impacts on local biodiversity in some parts of the world.

One such example is in Kushiro, a small town on the island of Hokkaido, Northern Japan. Over the past couple of months, the town has attracted attention as citizens and local authorities petitioned against the expansion of mega solar, arguing that it adversely impacts the Japanese giant salamander, an amphibian classified as a vulnerable species.

Though a local issue in Japan, the situation raises a broader question: Are mega solar projects safe for local biodiversity? Unfortunately, the answer to this question is not straightforward because a lot depends on the nature of the species and management practices. It also raises the question of how confident we can be in the existing mechanisms designed to ensure that mega solar projects do not adversely impact biodiversity.

What Is Mega Solar And Is It needed?

Mega solar are solar photovoltaic installations in a large land area. A typical mega solar farm can produce over 1 MW enough to power for hundreds of houses. This concentration of solar PV installations is different from distributed solar PV, which is usually installed over the rooftops.

Mega solar farms feed into the global renewable energy expansion plans and are therefore important. Last year at COP 29, global leaders set the target to triple renewable energy. Renewable energy sources, in particular, solar and wind technologies, are responsible for one of the largest shares of global CO2 emission reductions between now and 2030 in the International Energy Agency's net zero scenario.

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The scale at which mega solar projects can add renewable energy to a country's national energy mix is why governments actively promote them. For instance, Japan aims to be net zero by 2050 and to reach that goal, it plans to increase the share of renewables such as solar in its power generation mix from 26% to 38% by 2030. From a clean energy planning perspective for Japan, a town such as Kushiro is vital to reach that aim primarily because it has long hours of sunlight, the land is flat as well as less costly, and it has proximity to big towns that can absorb the supply of the electricity from these panels.

On the other hand, conversation groups and citizens question the need for these mega solar farms in their area, the choice of location and its impact on biodiversity. In Japan, local authorities and citizens highlight that the habitat of the rare northern salamander overlaps with the construction site of mega solar projects. In the United States, large solar farms are expanding in the Mojave region of California . Local conservationists highlight that the area may look barren to the naked eye. Still, it is an ecosystem of animals such as desert tortoises, lizards, and bighorn sheep. In the UK, a petition was signed by over 17,000 people requesting the prohibition of mega solar facilities of over 50MW on UK farmland.

Solar PV installations can impact biodiversity, such as birds, reptiles and insects. For instance, scientists are testing the lake hypothesis in the desert regions of the US where there are large solar installations. According to this hypothesis, solar panels polarize light similarly to water, causing birds in flight to confuse large ground-mounted solar for water bodies and dive into them. This polarised light can also attract polarotactic insects such as dragonflies, mayflies, and moths, potentially impacting their reproductive biology.

Is The Current System To Check For The Impact Of Solar On Biodiversity Sufficient?

Environment impact assessments check whether a project adversely affects the local environment. However, whether they are sufficient to capture the specific impact of solar PV installations on local biodiversity remains unclear. For instance, in Kushiro town, the solar company is reported to have completed such an environmental impact assessment, but citizens continue to worry. One can question the sufficiency of environmental impact assessments of solar photovoltaic installations on local biodiversity because there is a knowledge gap about the impact of solar PV technology on biodiversity. Recently published literature has highlighted the urgent need for more research in this area so that decision-makers can accurately and reliably select solar installations and management practices that are least damaging to biodiversity.

The impact of ground-mounted solar PV installations on aquatic invertebrates, reptiles, and birds (including bats) is a vastly understudied area. A 2017 study by the UK government reviewed 420 scientific documents and 37 grey literature, to examine the impact of solar farms on birds, bats and general ecology and found limited research for these different animal categories. There are some studies for different types of animals. For instance, a study conducted in Japan in 2020 published in the Journal of Ecology & evolution found that as a result of solar PV, tree diversity and habitat suitability indices for two raptors declined, the mountain hawk-eagle and the Blakiston's fish owl.

On the other side of the spectrum, there are also discussions there could be positive impacts from solar PV developments to support biodiversity. For instance, a report by the International Union For Conservation for Nature highlights that solar PV installation on degraded agricultural farmlands can support biodiversity if well managed. Well-managed practices can include plant and tree planting, which could positively impact biodiversity, providing areas for the birds to lay eggs. One example is South Hill Solar Farm, quoted in the report, where evidence from the first three years shows that botanical biodiversity is increasing.

Some positive developments towards addressing energy and biodiversity nexus are beginning to emerge. The UK recently implemented a biodiversity net gain program, under which all project developers must ensure their projects deliver a net biodiversity gain of 10%. Under this program, if the local planning authority grants planning permission, the developer has to create a biodiversity gain plan that shows how the project will achieve a net biodiversity gain.

Striking a balance between decarbonization and biodiversity conservation can be a tightrope walk. It is important that citizens, local authorities, policymakers, and businesses work together to find a balance that works for our planet and the local community.

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Two solar probes are helping researchers understand what phenomenon powers the solar wind.

This artist’s rendition shows NASA’s Parker Solar Probe approaching the Sun. Steve Gribben/Johns Hopkins APL/NASA via AP

Our Sun drives a constant outward flow of plasma, or ionized gas, called the solar wind, which envelops our solar system. Outside of Earth’s protective magnetosphere, the fastest solar wind rushes by at speeds of over 310 miles (500 kilometers) per second. But researchers haven’t been able to figure out how the wind gets enough energy to achieve that speed – until now.

Our team of heliophysicists published a paper in August 2024 that points to a new source of energy propelling the solar wind.

Solar wind discovery

Physicist Eugene Parker predicted the solar wind’s existence in 1958 . The Mariner spacecraft, headed to Venus, would confirm its existence in 1962.

Since the 1940s , studies had shown that the Sun’s corona, or solar atmosphere , could heat up to very high temperatures – over 2 million degrees Fahrenheit (or more than 1 million degrees Celsius).

Parker’s work suggested that this extreme temperature could create an outward thermal pressure strong enough to overcome gravity and cause the outer layer of the Sun’s atmosphere to escape.

Gaps in solar wind science quickly arose, however, as researchers took more and more detailed measurements of the solar wind near Earth. In particular, they found two problems with the fastest portion of the solar wind.

For one, the solar wind continued to heat up after leaving the hot corona without explanation. And even with this added heat, the fastest wind still didn’t have enough energy for scientists to explain how it was able to accelerate to such high speeds.

Both these observations meant that some extra energy source had to exist beyond Parker’s models.

Alfvén waves

The Sun and its solar wind are plasmas. Plasmas are like gases , but all the particles in plasmas have a charge and respond to magnetic fields.

Similar to how sound waves travel through the air and transport energy on Earth, plasmas have what are called Alfvén waves moving through them. For decades, Alfvén waves had been predicted to affect the solar wind’s dynamics and play an important role in transporting energy in the solar wind.

However, scientists couldn’t tell whether these waves were actually interacting with the solar wind directly or if they generated enough energy to power it. To answer these questions, they’d have to measure the solar wind very close to the Sun.

In 2018 and 2020, NASA and the European Space Agency launched their respective flagship missions: the Parker Solar Probe and the Solar Orbiter . Both missions carried the right instruments to measure Alfvén waves near the Sun.

The Solar Orbiter ventures between 1 astronomical unit, where the Earth is, and 0.3 astronomical units, a little closer to the Sun than Mercury. The Parker Solar Probe dives much deeper . It gets as close as five solar diameters from the Sun, within the outer edges of the corona . Each solar diameter is about 865,000 miles (1,400,000 kilometers).

With both these missions operating together, not only can researchers like us examine the solar wind close to the Sun, but we can also study how it changes between the point where Parker sees it and the point where the Solar Orbiter sees it.

Magnetic switchbacks

In Parker’s first close approach to the Sun, it observed that the solar wind near the Sun was indeed abundant with Alfvén waves .

Scientists used Parker to measure the solar wind’s magnetic field. At some points they noticed the field lines – or lines of magnetic force – waved at such high amplitudes that they briefly reversed direction. Scientists called these phenomena magnetic switchbacks . With Parker, they observed these energy-containing plasma fluctuations everywhere in the near-Sun solar wind.

Our research team wanted to figure out whether these switchbacks contained enough power to accelerate and heat the solar wind as it traveled away from the Sun. We also wanted to examine how the solar wind changed as these switchbacks gave up their energy. That would help us determine whether the switchbacks’ energy was going into heating the wind, accelerating it or both.

To answer these questions, we identified a unique spacecraft configuration where both spacecraft crossed the same portion of solar wind, but at different distances from the Sun.

The switchbacks’ secret

Parker, close to the Sun, observed that about 10% of the solar wind energy was residing in magnetic switchbacks, while Solar Orbiter measured it as less than 1%. This difference means that between Parker and the Solar Orbiter, this wave energy was transferred to other energy forms.

We performed some modeling , much like Eugene Parker had . We built off modern implementations of Parker’s original models and incorporated the influence of the observed wave energy to these original equations.

By comparing both datasets and the models, we could see specifically that this energy contributed to both acceleration and heating. We knew it contributed to acceleration because the wind was faster at Solar Orbiter than Parker. And we knew it contributed to heating, as the wind was hotter at Solar Orbiter than it would have been if the waves weren’t present.

These measurements told us that the energy from the switchbacks was both necessary and sufficient to explain the solar wind’s evolution as it travels away from the Sun.

Not only does our measurement tell scientists about the physics of the solar wind and how the Sun can affect the Earth, but it also may have implications throughout the universe.

Yeimy J. Rivera , Researcher in Astrophysics, Smithsonian Institution ; Michael L. Stevens , Researcher in Astrophysics, Smithsonian Institution , and Samuel Badman , Researcher in Astrophysics, Smithsonian Institution

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

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