Question by feasco32: how does solar cell convert sunlight into electricty?
Best answer:
Answer by TSSA!
Alright: Photons (in sunlight) contain energy. When they strike an atom, one or more of its electrons will jump into a higher energy state.
With metals, they often jump into the conduction band, producing an electric current.
Modern Solar Cells utilize semiconductor technology, with doped silicon. When light strikes the solar cell, it creates an electron-hole pair (also known as an exciton)- one of the doped atoms accepts an electron and the other rejects one. Because of the semiconductor properties, the pair will migrate through the cell creating an electric current.
So basically, light hits the solar cell and delivers its energy into the material. Energy has to go somewhere- in the case of metals and semiconductors, it goes into electricity and heat.
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How Does Solar Power Work?
A Detailed Overview of Photovoltaics
• Uses photovoltaics to convert sunlight directly into electricity by converting
photons (light particles) into electrons (negatively charged particles)
• Photovoltaic (PV) cells are made of special materials called semiconductors
• Silicon, mixed with other atoms, is currently the most commonly semi-conductive
material
• When light strikes the PV cell, a certain portion of it is absorbed within the
semiconductor material, meaning that the energy of the absorbed light is
transferred to the semiconductor.
• The energy knocks electrons loose, allowing them to flow freely.
• PV cells also all have one or more electric fields that act to force electrons freed
by light absorption to flow in a certain direction, called a current.
• This current, together with the cell’s voltage (which is a result of its built-in
electric field or fields), defines the power (or wattage) that the solar cell can
produce.
• In Short, when the sun hits a PV cell it causes the atoms to release their electrons
in a way that produces a direct current (DC) similar to the energy from batteries.