What Are Solar Panels?
Have you ever wondered, “What are solar energy panels?” and “How do they work?” Well here is your answer.
Solar power panels are devices designed to capture the sun’s energy and turn it into useable electricity. They are made of silicon, and are usually rectangular and dark colored. Now, in order to understand how they work we need to discuss a little chemistry. But I promise its not too complicated, I’ll make it simple.
Solar panels use silicon because it has four electrons orbiting it when in its natural state, though it has room for 8.
One silicon atom can combine with another silicon atom to create a bond, sharing each others four electrons. But that doesn’t create electricity because the two silicon atoms exactly fill each others capacity of 8 (4 electrons each); there is no positive or negative charge. In order to create electricity, you need to have a positive or negative charge.
So, to create electricity you need to create a flow of electricity from negative to positive, meaning you need to combine silicon with another element. If you take silicon and combine it chemically with phosphorus (which can give 5 electrons), you will end up with one extra electron the silicon/phosphorus molecule doesn’t need. This creates a negative charge. But in order to get electricity, you need a positive charge to attract this electron. The flow of this electron from negative molecule to a positive molecule creates electricity.
To create a positive charge, silicon can be combined with an element with three electrons to offer, like boron. This means that’s there’s one open spot for an electron (Silicon has 4, boron as 3, leaving one spot open). When that one extra electron around the silicon/phosphorus molecule moves into the open spot around the silicon/boron molecule, electricity is created. But, that electron won’t go there willingly; it needs the sun’s help.
Sunlight has many different particles of energy, one of which is the photon. These photons hit the silicon/phosphorus atom and knocks that extra electron right to where the positive silicon/boron atom can suck it in.
As this continues to happen to atom after atom, electricity is generated.
So what happens to that extra electron that got thrown out of one “negative” home and thrown into the “positive” home? Well, child services comes along and takes him back to his original home, so that the process can start all over again.
And that is how solar energy panels work.
