Solar Cell - Theory

Theory

The solar cell works in three steps:

  1. Photons in sunlight hit the solar panel and are absorbed by semiconducting materials, such as silicon.
  2. Electrons (negatively charged) are knocked loose from their atoms, causing an electric potential difference. Current starts flowing through the material to cancel the potential and this electricity is captured. Due to the special composition of solar cells, the electrons are only allowed to move in a single direction.
  3. An array of solar cells converts solar energy into a usable amount of direct current (DC) electricity.

Read more about this topic:  Solar Cell

Famous quotes containing the word theory:

    “Lucretius
    Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
    smiling carves dreams, bright cells
    Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.”
    —Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)

    “It makes no sense to say what the objects of a theory are,
    beyond saying how to interpret or reinterpret that theory in another.”
    —Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)

    “The weakness of the man who, when his theory works out into a flagrant contradiction of the facts, concludes “So much the worse for the facts: let them be altered,” instead of “So much the worse for my theory.””
    —George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)