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 a solar panel is sand or silicon, the element Si on the periodic table. In its natural form, silicon has four electrons but has room for eight of them. When two silicon atoms combine, a strong bond is created but electricity is not produced since the atoms share each others capacity for eight electrons. To create the electrical current, a positive and negative charge is needed.

The positive-negative balance can be introduced to the silicon atoms by using phosphorus which has five electrons. Combined with silicon it lends a negative charge as the silicon does not need the one extra atom. In the same way, a positive charge is created by using boron which has three atoms. The chemical reaction of balancing positive and negative charges by introducing phosphorus and boron releases an electrical current.

Once the chemical components are in place in the solar panels, the rest of the chemical reactions follow when the sun's rays hit the panels. When the silicon-phosphorus atoms are hit by the photons (particles of energy in the sun's rays), those atoms lose that extra electron, which is then attracted by the positive silicon-boron atoms. The three electron structure of boron is thus compensated. This continuous process of the interaction of positive and negative charge in the atoms produces the electrical current.

In order for this process to work and a lot of electricity to be produced, you must have a large number of solar panels, which means you will have to spend a good deal of money. Make sure that you have installed back up power storage where you can store the electricity produced by the solar panels or else you are wasting the energy that you produced.

Don't worry if you didn't follow the chemistry. The point is that the solar is a much cleaner way of meeting our electricity needs and can help us save our environment and the world.