Electronic – Simple Op Amp Non-inverting Amplifier Circuit Not Working

I would add a couple of suggestions for the design:

1. You are using 741 OP-AMP, which is not rail-to-rail, and you're using it for driving the base of a transistor: what happens is that when the output of the 741 is high, it will be at about Vcc - 1V, that is enough to keep the transistor on. I would suggest using a rail-to-rail OPAMP or adding a small resistance to the emitter of the transistor to limit the current when the input is high (could be even better because you mantain the fan at a slower speed but still cooling).

2. When designing with sensors, such as photoresistors or thermistors, it's better to - first know the value at room temperature of these sensors - and then picking a potentiometer just bigger to simulate the behavior of this sensor, and check that the circuit is working.

UPDATE: from the datasheet, the typical voltage swing is 13-14 V (you can measure the exact maximum value just measuring the positive saturation voltage), and by design the lose in the range tends to be more in the upper rail, because the output stage has a \$ {V_{CE}}^{sat} + {V_{BE}^{ON}} \simeq 0.2 + 0.6 \simeq 0.8 V \$.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

UPDATE 2: Now I see that you are powering your circuit at +12V / 0V, that is NOT the exact supply voltage specified for the 741 OPAMP: it requires a dual-rail, \$ \pm 15V \$ fix this as the first thing.

You can see as your OPAMP is outputting 10 V instead of 12, and 1.2V instead of 0; the first, with the drop over the resistor, makes the transistor always on, as you can see that the base voltage is 11V, enough to keeping it on.

And...why did you use a diode to simulate a fan??? Seems a quite different load.

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE:

I'm glad that it works, at least the simulation: however, you are still using a single rail supply (+12:0, +15:0). The 741 wants +15:-15, so the best thing to do is CHANGING THE OPAMP. It's not expensive at all and you can use a rail-to-rail (again), that is better for single supply applications, down to 3.3V if you need that; or, for your case, +12 or +5.

This is an option, here there is plenty, you have only to choose, based primarily on availability for your purpose. For the simulator, you can also find many options.

The way you're checking your circuit is not appropriate. The dark current specified in the datasheet is for 20 V reverse voltage applied. However your circuit does not reverse bias the photodiode.

The datasheet shows typical dark current vs reverse bias:

With no reverse bias, you should expect 0 dark current, as in any other diode with 0 V applied.

You need to test your circuit with some light applied to the photodiode. An input signal on the order of 10 to 100 nW (depending on wavelength) should produce a measurable output signal. Be aware that your photodiode has a strongly directional response, and the input light must be entering from nearly "straight on" to be detected. This will limit your ability to detect diffuse reflections.