How Solar Panels Create Energy

A diagram showing how a solar panel battery system works.

How solar panels create energy.

Ac energy then flows through the home s electrical panel and is distributed accordingly. A south facing installation will. Solar photovoltaic panels use the sun s energy to create electricity to run appliances and lighting. This doesn t mean that it needs to be sunny all the time for power to be generated as the technology relies simply on daylight.

Making it more cost effective for consumers and businesses to generate and store their own solar energy. To understand this process further let s look at the solar energy components that make up a complete solar power system. When this occurs a flow of electricity is generated and this electricity is harnessed and preserved as electrical energy. Solar panels work by allowing particles of light called photons to knock electrons from their atomic orbitals.

Solar panels contain cells of semiconductive material usually silicon usually encased in a metallic frame and tempered glass. When subject to sunlight photovoltaic cells create a flow of electric charge inside the solar panel due to the photoelectric effect. This all happens as light hits a unit called a photovoltaic cell. Solar panels work by absorbing sunlight with photovoltaic cells generating direct current dc energy and then converting it to usable alternating current ac energy with the help of inverter technology.