Question by <3 Eurasian girl <3: how do solar photovoltaic panels work?
I need to know how solar photovoltaic panels work. Anyone have a good explanation?
Best answer:
Answer by Rudydoo
Hey E Girl, photovoltiac panels are pretty simple. They start with a solid block of silicone, and shave thin layers off of them, called wafers. Once you have about 72 of them, you take half of them and dope them with boron, then the other half are doped with phosphorous. Once that’s done, they take one each phosphorous and boron wafer, and glue them together with a special conductive epoxy glue, and attach a wire to each wafer. When the two glued wafers are exposed to the sun, a reaction occurs that forces free electrons from the silicone particles from one wafer onto the other, and a voltage is generated between them, about 1/2 volt to be exact.
Once all 36 pairs are glued together, they are wired in series, connecting the phosphourous wafer from one to the boron wafer on the next, and so on. If you start with 72 wafers, you’ll have 36 pairs glued together when you are done. At 1/2 volt each, that makes a 18 volt panel, which is used to charge a 12 volt battery. The charging source always has to have a few more volts than the battery. These 36 pairs of cells are then arranged on some kind of back board, glued down, covered with acrylic glass and mounted in a frame.
There are some great websites you can go to for more info, I will list some below. Did you know that there are over 100,000 homes and businesses in the US alone that use some level of solar power to operate their electrical systems? That’s good news. We actually live in one of those homes, it is powered by both the wind and sun and heated with solar and wood. I hope this answers your question, good luck, and take care, Rudydoo
Give your answer to this question below!
Leave a Reply