How Solar Cells Generate Electricity
The answer to the question of how do you produce electricity from
solar energy is fairly easy to understand once you have a slight
knowledge of the subject.
Before you are able to produce electricity through solar energy,
there needs to be some form of solar cell or panel.
The solar panels are made of a semi-conductive material, the most
common material is silicon.
The semi-conductive material contains electrons which are quite
happy just sitting there.
When photons (contained within the suns rays) hit the solar cells,
the electrons absorb this solar energy, transforming them into
conduction electrons.
If the energy of these photons is great enough, then the electrons
are able to become free, and carry an electric charge through a
circuit to the destination.
Any electrons that do not receive enough energy simply warm up,
which heats your cell or panel, resulting in lowering the efficiency
of the cell. South facing solar energy devices are used to generate
electricity from the sun.
The lowering in efficiency is down to two main factors and they are;
that the cell is not working to its full potential (e.g. some
electrons may be lost), the second factor is when the electrons
release heat, the panel also becomes warm, interfering with other
aspects of the solar cells.
The more solar cells contained in a solar panel, or solar array,
means the more output you will receive.
Quality cells are also a major factor in efficiency. If you purchase
more expensive natural energy technologies, you are more likely to
have a more efficient cell.
Another factor which affects solar panel efficiency is location.
Obviously nearer the equator, you will receive a slightly better
output with a given cell, but solar cells should always be facing
the direction of the sun, and have no objects blocking the suns
rays.
So there we have a basic understand of how you produce solar
electricity from using energy within the suns rays.