The most powerful source of energy available to us is not from mankind’s invention or discovery but form the nature. This source of energy is the sun which has been around form the very first day the earth was created has been providing us with an energy that’s far more powerful than anything man has been able to invent. These days the solar energy is becoming the biggest alternative for current source of energy due to the reason that it’s cheap, effective, environmental friendly and long lasting. Solar power means the conversion of sunlight into usable electricity.
The sun throws huge amount of energy every day on the surface of earth, this sunlight consists of positively charged photons particles. Solar cells or photovoltaic are used to convert this energy into usable electricity. These cells are made up of semiconductors. The most common semiconductor is made up silicon mixed up with different materials.
These semiconductors made up of different materials provide different out put of energy. The amount of energy generated depends upon the number of semiconductors. These combinations of cells are known as modules and a number of modules form an array. When sunlight strikes the surface of these cells a certain amount of this energy is absorbed into the semiconductor.
This energy allows the electron of the semiconductor to go free. These cells have an electric field that forces the free electron to move in a certain direction. This flow of electron is the current. In order to draw this current, the cells are externally connected with metal. This current is in DC form but the appliances that we use needs AC power so a device called the inverter is attached to the cells to convert the energy from DC power to AC power. The surface of the cells is coated with different antireflective material so that the surface can absorb more photons.
Following are the different types of silicon material that are currently used.
- Single crystalline.
- Poly crystalline.
- Amorphous silicon.
- Multi junction.
The single crystalline cell is the most expensive available in the market but is also the most effective in absorbing the photons and generating power. The poly crystalline is less expensive due to the material type and that is the reason it’s not very effective and less preferred. For out door purposes amorphous are very durable but does not provide huge amount of power. In order to increase power output you need to increase the number of panels.The multi junction devices have very high conversion efficiency due to the reason that they capture a large portion of the solar spectrum. The material on the surface of a multi junction is also very effective and efficient in absorbing the photons form the sunlight and converting them into usable power, this is solar power. These semi conductors have a very long life, an average of 20 years so that you can have no problem with major breakdowns or power outage for a long time.
What is solar power? it is a green and clean energy source, click here to visit the Solar power info site.