Photo-Voltaic Solar Panels And Their Role In How Solar Energy Works
When thinking about how solar energy works - it helps to understand the role of the photo-voltaic-solar panels.
Photo-voltaic solar panels are what most people think about when they think about solar power.
It helps to understand how solar energy works by looking at photo-voltaic solar panels and their role in solar power production.
Albert Einstein - A Tie Into Photo-Voltaic Solar Panels.
The basic process of how solar energy works actually ties back to Albert Einstein.
While he's best known for General and Special relativity, what he got his Nobel Prize for was chemistry, on a function called the "photo-electric effect".
This effect is what drives solar energy cells and makes the technology possible.
- What it means is that certain materials, when struck by photons, will have an electron shaken 'loose' from their atomic structure.
- This electron 'nudge' is how solar energy works.
- By nudging the electron out on a semi-conductor, it can get picked up by another part of the semi-conductor, and generate a current.
Sunlight + Photo-Voltaic Solar Panels + Solar Cells = Electricity
One of the ways you can think of how solar energy works is looking at the layout of the componenents that work together to convert sunlight into solar energy.
- Sunlight
- Silicon
- Photo-voltaic solar panels
- Solar Cells
- A Current Inverter
- Solar Batteries
The Science Behind Photo-Voltaic Solar Panels: The Game Of Knocking Electrons Loose
You can think of sunlight knocking electrons loose from the top of the solar cell where they're absorbed by the bottom of the solar cell and generate a current; another process cycles that material back.
- In a convention solar cell, there are two sheets of an element called silicon.
- Silicon has a special property - there are four electrons in its outermost layer, with eight 'slots' for them.
- When silicon is pure and forms a crystalline structure, this makes it very easy for it to bond - electrons move from one atom to an adjacent one.
- This chemical property is fundamental to how solar energy works.
The Conversion Process: Getting Electricity From Photo-Voltaic Solar Panels
Most solar cells have an anti-reflective coating (if they don't, the light just reflects off before it can trigger an electron cascade).
- They also have to be wired together in series to generate enough voltage (a measure of how strong the current is).
The Conversion Process: Converting The Electricity From Photo-Voltaic Solar Panels
The voltage made from the photo-voltaic solar panel comes out in Direct Current (DC) which makes it great for filling batteries, but not so great for powering most electronics devices.
- So, from an installation perspective, one of the important parts of how solar energy works is figuring out how to get that DC electricity into a form that will power your appliances.
The Critical Component For How Solar Energy Works Is Called A Current Inverter.
The current inverter converts DC electricity into AC electricity.
- Each time you run power through the inverter, it loses some of it to waste heat.
- This is essentially the reverse of what your cell phone charger or laptop charger does - they convert AC wall socket power to the DC power that those devices need to recharge their batteries.
The Conversion Process: Storing The Electricity From Photo-Voltaic Solar Panels
Another part of how solar energy works is storing the power you generate.
Unless you have a very unusual setup, in most cases, you're likely to generate solar power that you can't use at the time it's coming in.
- So it gets converted to electricity and is stored in batteries.
- Most people rig their solar power systems to charge the batteries, and put the inverter 'down circuit' from the batteries themselves.
- This minimizes the conversion losses in solar power.
The Photo-Voltaic Solar Panel - Just How Efficient Is It?
When looking into how solar energy works, understand that you don't convert all the sunlight into electricity.
- Most solar energy cells convert between 14 and 16% of the energy to electricity.
- After transmission losses (from the solar cells to the batteries by wiring) and inverter losses, this can be as little as 10% of the energy being converted into something you want, like powering the refrigerator or fan system.
While photovoltaics are sexy, and electricity is very useful, it's key to understanding how solar energy works to understand that solar thermal systems (where the sunlight heats up water or some other working fluid) are nearly three times as efficient as a solar power system as solar electric systems.
It's worth it to look into both photo electric systems and solar thermal systems for heating water and triggering air flow and cutting down on electricity.
Here's to finding a way to bring more solar power into your family!
P.S. Here's a few more tips to help your solar power projects go smoothly...
Silicon Solar Cells - 5 Things You Need To Know About Getting Them To Perform Their Best |
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5 Crucial Solar Panel Mounting Factors That Will Make Your Solar Mounting Project A Success |
