Solar Panels - How do They Work?

The cause of global warming is the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. In order to decrease the amount of greenhouse gases and control global warming, a search has begun to find alternative sources of electricity, instead of coal, oil and to a certain extent nuclear power plants which emit pollutants causing this catastrophe in the atmosphere.

The Sun, which is the nearest and most powerful source of renewable energy, can help in producing electricity without causing pollution. This can be done by tapping the Sun’s energy. This can be done with the help of photovoltaic cells, many of which comprise a solar panel. There are, however, drawbacks to the installation, use and maintenance of pv solar panels. The biggest of these drawbacks are the costs of setting up these systems and dealing with the whether, specifically rain and snow.

Ever wondered how solar panels work? It’s complicated, but all one needs is a bit of basic chemistry to understand the various chemical reactions that take place to form the electrical current. Let’s find out how this thing works

The main component of the panel is silicon (the element Si on the periodic table) or in purely non-scientific terminology, sand. In its natural form, silicon has four electrons but has the capacity for accommodating double that number, that is, eight electrons. One silicon atom can combine with another to form a strong bonding. In this case both atoms share each other’s potential capacity for eight electrons. The electrical current however can be produced only by one negative and one positive charge.

Here, you need some knowledge of chemistry! You add a negative charge to be introduced to the silicon atoms. Usually it is phosphorus, which has five electrons. Once combined with silicon, it lends a negative charge, that is, there is an extra electron that the silicon atom doesn’t need, which floats around. A positive charge is created using boron, which has three electrons. When these positive and negative charges react, electricity flows!

Well, now comes the most important part of the chemical reaction! The sun’s rays are made up of various particles of energy, the photon being one of them. The photons, when they hit the silicon-phosphorus atoms, knock off that extra electron which is attracted by the positive silicon-boron atoms, to compensate for the 3-electron structure of boron. As those electrons continue to be attracted and flow, electricity is produced.

But for this to really work and produce a good amount of electricity, one needs a lot of solar panels and that’s where you’ll have to keep a watch on your wallet, because it doesn’t come cheap! If you haven’t installed any batteries to store the electricity produced by your solar panel, you are wasting the capacity of all of those solar panels.

Whether you followed the chemistry lesson or not, the takeaway is that solar is a cleaner source of energy than the traditional methods and using it may save our environment for the benefit of future generations.