Understanding How Solar Works
Solar panels harness the limitless supply of solar energy from the sun to run your home or business, reduce your energy consumption costs and generate clean power. Let’s break that down.
The solar panels generate electricity through a method called the photovoltaic effect. This is the creation of a voltage or electric current (electricity) in a material when exposed to light. A solar cell, which can be made of many different materials, but in most circumstances is constructed as a very thin silicon wafer, is manufactured to harness this effect and capture the electricity produced when it is exposed to light.
Now for the technical bit – when a particle of light hits any material, the light can impart its energy to an electron within the material, ‘knocking’ it free of its orbit. In most materials this ‘free’ electron is absorbed back into the material, however in a solar cell an electric field exists due to the way it has been constructed. This electric field acts to collect all the electrons knocked free, and send them through a circuit to create an electric current, which can eventually be used to power electric devices.
Ok, so then how does the electricity from solar panels power a house?
In order to use the solar cells they are contained within a solar panel. Each panel is made up of a number of these solar cells which are all connected together inside the panel. In order to make a complete solar array for a typical house, a number of these panels are connected together – this is what you see on your roof.
The panels are connected to an inverter, which changes the DC (direct current) electricity output of the panels to AC (alternate current) electricity that can be used to power your home or business, or be fed back to the electricity network or stored in a battery connected to your system.
To start the conversation about solar power with the friendly Solbase team contact us on 1300 718 066.