1. Introduction

Renewable and sustainable energy sources are replacing non-renewable energy sources, such as fossil fuels, due to the significantly lesser pollution they cause and that they rely on non-depletable energy sources like the light of the sun and hydroelectric power.

Thus, more people and companies have started adopting renewable energy sources to save the environment. A significant example is Tesla, which is making a Gigafactory (Tesla, 2022) that produces batteries. However, since they want it to be a net-zero factory, they used solar energy to power the factory instead, which helps put less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and saves the environment.

One renewable energy source we can rely on is solar energy since we have developed solar panels. Solar panels come in various rectangular shapes (Donev, 2020) and consist of smaller photovoltaic modules. These modules convert solar energy to electrical energy, which powers homes and devices. Thus, solar energy is cleaner to use than non-renewable sources (Soh, 2020). Solar energy conversion into electricity by photovoltaic modules is also a mature technology that is being actively improved in terms of efficiency in converting sunlight into more electricity (NCBI, 2016).

In recent years, we have seen global warming taking place, which causes Earth’s temperature to rise. This can be attributed to our ever-growing electricity consumption. Thus, more fossil fuels have been burned to allow for more electricity production. This, in turn, pollutes the environment with a big amount of carbon dioxide, which also contributes to the enhanced Greenhouse effect. This causes global warming and its harmful effects include rising sea levels, warming of oceans, prolonged droughts (WWF, 2022), dirtier air, a higher rate of species extinction, more acidic oceans (Denchak, 2016). These harmful effects are a repeated cycle and in order to break this loop, we have to transit to renewable energy, which produces less harmful pollutants in the air (US EPA, 2022). Once we make this transition, we would have a higher chance of slowing down the cycle of global warming by minimizing environmental harm. One renewable energy source which we can consider is solar energy since it is now a mature technology and consumers can easily get their hands on solar panels.

There have been other experiments that closely resemble our experiment. One such topic is “Investigation of the power output of solar panels under different light intensities”, done by the people behind the sciencebuddies.org website. Although the topics are very similar, ours would be testing solar panels at different angles but with the same intensity light, while the one done at the sciencebuddies.org website investigates the effects of different light intensity from the same angle. In that experiment, they came to the conclusion that as the intensity of light increases, the electricity output of the solar panels also increases (ScienceBuddies, 2022). Although these experiments are able to prove that solar panels can be made more efficient, some people remain unconvinced that solar panels can produce the required amount of energy they may need for their work. It can take a few years to see its benefits after incurring a high cost for installing solar panels (Ambort, 2020).

Thus this led us to an objective to find out if the angle of the light affects the electrical output of a solar panel. If we manage to figure out the optimal point at which solar panels can produce the most amount of electricity, people can design systems that allow the solar panels to receive light at that optimal angle, thus allowing for more electricity to be converted from light energy. Thus, this would dispel the people’s doubt about the efficiency of solar panels and solar energy. It will also help if we manage to ascertain the optimal angle of installation hence reducing installation time. Thus, if we make solar panels more efficient, more people might be interested in installing solar panels on their roof, which is aligned with two of UN’s 17 goals - Affordable and Clean Energy (UNSDG Number 7), and Sustainable Cities and Communities (UNSDG Number 11).