Photovoltaic cells how does it work

Residential systems are found on rooftops across the United States, and businesses are also opting to install solar panels. Utilities, too, are building large solar power plants to provide energy to all customers connected to the grid.

Learn more about the innovative research the Solar Energy Technologies Office is doing in these areas. In addition to this basic information about solar energy, you can find more solar energy information resources here.

Solar Energy Solar radiation is light — also known as electromagnetic radiation — that is emitted by the sun. Solar Radiation Basics. Solar Energy Glossary.

Photovoltaics Basics. Concentrating Solar-Thermal Power Basics. Systems Integration Basics. Soft Costs Basics. Each photovoltaic cell is basically a sandwich made up of two slices of semi-conducting material, usually silicon — the same stuff used in microelectronics.

Related: How does an atomic clock work? To work, photovoltaic cells need to establish an electric field. Much like a magnetic field , which occurs due to opposite poles, an electric field occurs when opposite charges are separated. To get this field, manufacturers "dope" silicon with other materials, giving each slice of the sandwich a positive or negative electrical charge. Specifically, they seed phosphorous into the top layer of silicon, which adds extra electrons, with a negative charge, to that layer.

Meanwhile, the bottom layer gets a dose of boron , which results in fewer electrons, or a positive charge. This all adds up to an electric field at the junction between the silicon layers.

The term "array" refers to the entire generating plant, whether it is made up of one or several thousand modules. The performance of a photovoltaic array is dependent upon sunlight. Climate e. Large banks of solar cells maximise the amount of solar energy they can generate. Solar photovoltaic PV is the generation of electricity from the sun's energy, using PV cells. A Solar Cell is a sandwich of two different layers of silicon that have been specially treated so they will let electricity flow through them in a specific way.

A Solar array is a collection of multiple solar panels that generate electricity as a system. In a Flash Solar panels convert the sunlight's photon energy into electricity. How does a PV Cell work? What is Photovoltaic? A Solar Panel is made up of many solar cells. Cool Facts Some PV cells can convert artificial light into electricity.