How Solar Rays can Power a Solar Panel

Here at Sun Energy Australia, we get asked a lot about just how a solar panel produces electricity for usage or to be sold back to the grid.

In fact, the process is relatively simple.

Every single solar panel or solar module is made up of a number of solar PV cells. Here, each cell would contain very thin wafers of silicon and these would lie under a protective transparent layer. 

Rays from the sun would hit the surface the of solar panel and the negatively doped silicon layer would excites the electrons and this would effectively take them away from their atoms. 

This would create a potential or a voltage difference between the two layers of silicon and a flow of electrons would be stimulated. The flow of electrons generates direct current electricity. 

Because most of our household appliances utilises AC or alternating current, the direct current from the solar system would have to be converted into alternating current through an inverter.