Photo voltaic power generation seems complex, but actually it is a bit simpler than you may think, however you need to know some solar energy facts to really understand it.
Alternative energy is extremely hot now, specifically after Japan's nuclear meltdown, and the increasing costs of traditional energy.
Solar panels or photovoltaic cells as they are sometimes called, produce solar energy from the sun. But how specifically does it do this?
Electrical power, no matter where it comes from or how it's produced adheres to similar concepts.
The flow of power, is then run through electrical wiring to appliance's in your house just like energy from coal or nuclear. But how is the energy created initially from the sun?
To answer this question we need to know what silicon is and what it is capable of. Silicon, is the magical element that we have been able to use to make computers, phones, and PV cells among other things.
The reason why silicon is so essential is because when you clear its impurities, it turns into a semiconductor. Semiconductors are capable of transmitting electrons, because of this it is a crucial ingredient in microchips, and photo voltaic panels. Silicon itself cannot produce electrical power. This is because silicon does not have a positive or a negative charge.
Because silicon is unable to make electrical power due to the fact that it carries neither a positive or negative charge, we need to add elements to the silicon that can generate negative and positive charges, this procedure is called doping. Boron is an element that when introduced to silicon will produce a positive charge, but to produce electricity we also need an element to make a negative charge, like phosphorus.
When we have the doped silicon ready, we need to connect conductive wires on both sides of the silicon. This will generate an electric field and we are one step closer to generating photo voltaic energy.
This is where the solar power comes into play?
The sun puts out different particles and the one we are looking for is photons. When the panel receives sunlight the photons effectively ram into the negative and positive charged atoms of the elements used in the panel.
These atoms are attached to rings within the electrical field and the photons will actually knock them off their ring making what we call a free carrier. These free carriers will carry electricity with them and will be drawn in to the opposite charged element's outer ring through the electrical field which acts as a diode either drawing in or pushing the electrons to flow to the positive or negative side.
The free carriers will then fill up the holes that the photons initially made by knocking the atoms off their ring. As the atoms find these holes and replace the other atoms that are knocked off they will generate electrical energy. The more atoms that break off and are replaced, the greater amount of power developed, which effectively creates the flow of electrons we call current.
Now we have created current with the flowing electrons and the silicon's electrical field will create voltage. When we combine voltage and current we get electrical energy. But now we need to draw this electricity out and to do this we need to connect metal contacts to the bottom and top of the cell. By doing this we can siphon the power off and direct it to whatever we want. These photo voltaic cells can be used as conventional solar panels or as solar roof tiles among other things.
Now if silicon is shiny then why are panels black? Well because silicon is shiny, it reflects a lot of the suns photons which will in effect lower our ability to cultivate power. To combat this we add a layer of anti-reflective coating, which will limit the reflection loss of photons to less than 5%. We will then cover the panel with a glass cover plate and a hardy frame to lessen the effects of nature.
Sadly not much power gets produced by one solar cell, which means that lots of cells will be needed. At least till we develop new technology, for instance paint that will conduct solar energy. The challenge is that the price is somewhat extravagant at the minute to buy systems and have them installed.
However it should be mentioned that the cost for home solar power can be significantly offset by constructing your own photo voltaic panels which can be very easily done with a little work.
Eli Wagar-Kustermann has been researching and writing about alternative energy for over 5 years and is the founder of solarpowercost.org.
The Solar Power Cost website was developed to increase the awareness of alternative energy and to provide an information rich resource for people wanting information on cleaner forms of energy generation.
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