Solar energy is the renewable radiant energy produced by the Sun. Renewable means that we will never run out of it. It is a natural a source of power and it is possible to generate light, heat and electricity.
What is solar panel?
Solar panels are devices with flat surfaces, that helps convert solar rays into electricity. A solar panel is a collection of solar modules or solar cells. Thousands of solar panels spread over a large area can work together to provide electricity, enough to power thousands of homes.
An average U.S. house uses about 10,000 Kilo watt hours (kWh) of electricity each year. A watt (W) is a unit of power, or energy per unit time. A 1 kWh (or 1000 watts hours) is a unit of energy, so 10,000 kWh is how much total energy each household uses over the course of a year? This means that each household, on average, uses energy at a rate of about 1 kilowatt. One megawatt can power up to 1000 homes.
Why solar panel so popular?
There are several advantages in solar panel technology which are increasing the efficiency and lowering the monthly electricity bill, thus making it even more cost effective. Solar panels, once installed, there is only a small amount of maintenance required each year to ensure they are in working order.
Here is a simplified explanation of solar power generation process:
The Photoelectric Effect
PV solar panels produce electricity using something called the “photoelectric effect”. The photoelectric effect is the observation that many metals emit electrons when light shines upon them. Electrons emitted in this manner may be called photoelectrons. This is the main principle used by PV solar panels.
What is a Solar Module?
The most important part of solar panel is the silicon solar cells. Silicon is made of tiny atoms that have charged electrons. The most common design of solar panels today uses two different types of silicon. This is to create negative and positive charged atoms.
This combination of different solar cells creates more electrons in the positively charged silicon and fewer electrons in the negatively charged silicon. The positively charged silicon cells are sandwiched with the negatively charged silicon cells. This configuration enables a reaction that produces electricity when the silicon cells are exposed to sunlight.
Solar Panel Production
Solar cells are carefully placed in a series of rows. Individual cells are connected using a thin conductive strip. This strip is woven over and under each silicon cell so that every cell in the solar panel is connected and creates an electric circuit. The solar cells are then covered with a heavy duty piece of glass and framed using an aluminum frame.
On the back of every solar panel are two leads. These leads are used to connect individual solar panels together to form an array of solar panels which are connected to the solar inverter.
How Does Solar Panels Work?
Inside a solar cell you have two wafer-thin layers of silicon crystal, placed on top of each other to make a sort of silicon sandwich. Which produce an electrical current when struck by light. While silicon is very efficient at turning light energy into electricity, it tends to cost more than “thin film” PV panels. These thin film panels use newer materials that produce smaller, more cost effective crystals, from materials such as copper-indium-gallium-selenide. Thin film solar utilizes stacked semiconductors only a few micrometers thick and has a variety of innovative applications such as roof shingles or solar window tinting that generate electricity, however they are usually less efficient than traditional silicon solar panels.
In a crystal, the bonds (between silicon atoms) are made of electrons that are shared between all atoms of the crystal. Light gets absorbed, and individual electrons in bonds get excited into a higher energy level and can move around more freely than when it was bound. That electron can then move around the crystal freely, which produces an electrical current.
