Solar panels use pure silicon, combined with other elements, to create a positive and negative charge. When photons from sunlight hit the panels, electrons are released, generating electricity. However, solar panels have limitations, such as their small size and susceptibility to weather damage. Scientists aim to create more efficient and practical panels.
Whether it’s a solar-powered calculator or an international space station, solar panels generate electricity using the same electronics principles as battery chemistries or ordinary electrical outlets. With solar panels, it’s all about the free flow of electrons through a circuit.
To understand how these panels generate electricity, it might help to take a short trip back to your high school chemistry class. The basic element of solar panels is the same element that helped create the information revolution: pure silicon. When silicon is stripped of all impurities, it forms an ideal neutral platform for electron transmission. Silicon also has some atomic-level properties that make it even more attractive for creating solar panels.
Silicon atoms have room for eight electrons in their outer bands, but carry only four in their natural state. This means there is room for four more electrons. If a silicon atom contacts another silicon atom, each receives the other atom’s four electrons. This creates a strong bond, but there is no positive or negative charge because the eight electrons satisfy the needs of the atoms. Silicon atoms can combine for years to make one big chunk of pure silicon. This material is used to form the panel slabs.
This is where the science comes into play. Two pure silicon plates would not generate electricity in solar panels, because they have no positive or negative charge. Solar panels are created by combining silicon with other elements that have positive or negative charges.
Phosphorus, for example, has five electrons to offer to other atoms. If silicon and phosphorus are chemically combined, the result is eight stable electrons with one more free electron along the way. It can’t leave, because it’s bonded to the other phosphorus atoms, but it’s not needed by silicon. Therefore, this new silicon/phosphor plate is considered to be negatively charged.
For electricity to flow, a positive charge must also be created. This is accomplished by combining silicon with an element like boron, which has only three electrons to offer. A silicon/boron plate still has one spot left for one more electron. This means that the plate has a positive charge. The two plates are sandwiched together in the panels, with conductive wires running between them.
With the two plates in place, it’s time to introduce the “solar” aspect of solar panels. Natural sunlight emits many different energy particles, but the one that interests us the most is called a photon. A photon essentially behaves like a hammer in motion. When the negative plates of solar cells are pointed at an appropriate angle to the sun, photons bombard the silicon/phosphorus atoms.
Finally, the ninth electron, which wants to be free anyway, is ejected from the outer ring. This electron does not stay free for long, as the silicon/boron positive plate pulls it into the open spot on its outer band. When photons from the sun break apart more electrons, electricity is generated. The electricity generated by a solar cell isn’t very impressive, but when all the conductive wires pull free electrons away from the plates, there’s enough electricity to power low amperage motors or other electronic devices. The unused or lost electrons in the air are returned to the negative plate and the whole process starts all over again.
One of the main problems with using solar panels is the small amount of electricity they generate compared to their size. A calculator might only require a single solar cell, but a solar-powered car would require several thousand. If the angle of the panels is changed even slightly, efficiency can decrease by 50 percent.
Some of the energy from solar panels can be stored in chemical batteries, but usually there isn’t much excess energy in the first place. The same sunlight that delivers the photons also delivers more destructive ultraviolet and infrared waves, which ultimately cause the panels to physically degrade. The panels also need to be exposed to destructive weather elements, which can also seriously affect performance.
Many sources also refer to solar panels as photovoltaic cells, which refers to the importance of light (photo) in the generation of electrical voltage. The challenge for future scientists will be to create more efficient panels, small enough for practical applications and powerful enough to create excess energy for times when sunlight is not available.
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