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Solar Cells

How Solar Cells Work?

Solar cells have become pervasive in many aspects of our daily lives. Applications vary widely from hand-held calculators, outdoor accent outdoor lighting, emergency mobile phone and mobile entertainment device chargers, emergency road signs to satellites, just to name a few. In each case the objective is to generate electricity.

On a sunny day, approximately 1,000 watts of energy reaches each square meter (1.2Sq Yd) of the earths surface. Needless to say that this is a lot of energy available at our disposal. Of the available energy reaching the Earth, existing solar cell technology can only absorb 15 - 25%. The challenge is to take advantage of it.

Solar Cells generate electricity by converting photons absorbed by the cells to free electrons. Most solar cells, otherwise known as photovoltaic (PV) cells or modules, utilize a variation of the same silicon based technology used to manufacture semiconductor devices present in our electronic equipment today.

Photovoltaic cells (Photo = Light and voltaic = electricity) convert a portion of the light energy directly into electricity when the energy absorbed within the semiconductor structure releases electrons to flow freely. Because of the semiconductor structure, electric fields result, that force the electrons to flow in a direction to produce a voltage and current output.

The output is made useable by placing metal contacts on the top and bottom of each cell. The output power (watts) is calculated by multiplying the output voltage by the output current.

Many of the above mentioned applications utilize the electric power directly as generated by the solar cell. However for home or commercial use multiple solar cells must be suitably interconnected to achieve more usable voltages and currents.

In addition, the solar panel outputs must be converted from Direct current (DC) into alternating current (AC). The same found in our normal mains supply.