Solar Power Panels - Fuel For An Environmentally Conscious Future
The hippest thing these days is going green, which basically means making environmentally conscious decision regarding recycling and power consumption. The use of solar power panels to harness the sun's rays for sustainable renewable energy is nothing new. In fact, solar energy has been used for hundreds of years in a variety of forms but has only recently been understood and utilized in the past century.
Most people have an idea of how solar energy works but the solar power panels themselves are something of a mystery. How do they work to capture energy from the sun to create a usable energy to power your microwave, television, lights and other electrical appliances?
Breaking It Down
These solar power panels are comprised of PV cells with the PV representing the words photo and voltaic. Obviously, photo represents light or the sun's rays while the word voltaic represents electricity so following through, these PV cells harness the sunlight and convert it into electricity. These PV cells can be found in a variety of solar devices and are configured into a series of cells for maximum solar energy absorption.
The PV cells are what the solar power panels are made of and there will be a lot of them housed within a panel, all interconnected to provide the maximum electrical energy possible. Diodes from semiconductors are incorporated into a PV cell with silicon, the primary material used in its construction because it is an efficient material. This semi-conductive material in the cells transports the energy (in the form of electricity) from the silicon material to the surrounding metal parts.
Photons from the sun's light are absorbed through these tiny semi-conductive cells that make up the solar power panels. From there, atoms are released and travel through these cells to produce an electrical charge. The metal parts amass this electrical energy and carry it to the inverter that changes it into AC power that can then be used to power your appliances.
Silicon is the typical material (as mentioned above) used in the creation of the PV cells for solar power panels but other materials are being researched too. Nano-crystals, foil, special polymers and dye-sensitized materials are being experimented with to determine what will produce the most efficient energy for various applications.
With a renewed focus on environmental awareness and reducing the country's dependency on fossil fuels for power, solar power panels are growing in popularity. Even if you cannot immediately afford to install a solar system in your home, keep an eye on the market because soon the technology will be more affordable to most classes of the population.
