How do solar cells covert sunlight directly into electricity?

Answer 1

photovoltaic reaction ( punch this into a search engine way too long for answers - at least a useful answer )

did you get the idea that the guy below did so - and didn't understand a thing he read ! lol

Answer 2

Photovoltaic (effect)

The "photovoltaic effect" is the basic physical process through which a solar cell converts sunlight into electricity. In 1839, nineteen-year-old Edmund Becquerel, a French experimental physicist, discovered the photovoltaic effect while experimenting with an electrolytic cell made up of two metal electrodes. Becquerel found that certain materials would produce small amounts of electric current when exposed to light.

Sunlight is composed of photons, or "packets" of energy. These photons contain various amounts of energy corresponding to the different wavelengths of light. When photons strike a solar cell, they may be reflected or absorbed, or they may pass right through. When a photon is absorbed, the energy of the photon is transferred to an electron in an atom of the cell (which is actually a semiconductor). With its newfound energy, the electron is able to escape from its normal position associated with that atom to become part of the current in an electrical circuit. By leaving this position, the electron causes a hole to form. Special electrical properties of the solar cell Ña built-in electric field (thanks to a P-N junction) Ñprovide the voltage needed to drive the current through an external load (such as a light bulb).

http://encyclobeamia.solarbotics.net/articles/photovoltaic.html

Answer 3

A solar cell (or photovoltaic cell) is a semiconductor device that converts photons into electricity. Fundamentally, the device needs to fulfill only two functions: photogeneration of charge carriers (electrons and holes) in a light-absorbing material, and separation of the charge carriers to a conductive contact that will transmit the electricity. This conversion is called the photovoltaic effect, and the field of research related to solar cells is known as photovoltaics.

Solar cells have many applications. They are particularly well suited to, and historically used in, situations where electrical power from the grid is unavailable, such as in remote area power systems, Earth orbiting satellites, handheld calculators, remote radiotelephones and water pumping applications. Assemblies of solar cells (in the form of modules or photovoltaic arrays) on building roofs can be connected through an inverter to the electricity grid, often in a net metering arrangement.

Answer 4

Solar cells are made of material (usually silicon doped with gallium arsenic or other materials) that is photo-sensitive. That means that when a photon of light from the sun hits the cell material, it frees an electron from the atomic bonds of the material, and that electron is then let loose, creating a net negative charge in substate of the cell. The electron is now free to flow through a circuit, doing electrical work.

It basically uses the sun's energy to free electrons that we can then use as electric current. Pretty neat, huh? :)

Answer 5

Einstein won the nobel prize in physics for describing the "photo-electric effect". This refers to photons (light) striking the surface of a metal and knocking electrons out of the atoms. If this piece of metal is connected to a continuous circuit the electrons travel through it - this is electricity or electric current. That is essentially how a solar cell works.

Answer 6

There are quite a few instruments that may convert image voltaic power to electrical energy. before each little thing, there is the obtrusive image voltaic Panel or image voltaic cellular. They artwork by skill of soaking up warmth radiation and compressing it into electrical energy. Photovoltaic cells are very nearly many image voltaic cells alligned right into a pile/stack. those are tremendous instruments as they take up and convert at an outstanding %.. Thermo electric powered turbines are also good converters as they take up UV radiation from the daylight and convert it into electrical energy it truly is saved below the floor.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

A Yahoo Search: solar cells convert solar to electricity

will net science.howstuffworks.com/solar-cell.htm

Answer 9

Essentially a reversed-biased diode junction is exposed to the light. Photons from the sunlight are absorbed by valence electrons to create electron-hole pairs. These pairs are swept out of the junction before they can recombine.

Answer 10

Photons converted to electrons (quantum physics), which jump the band gap and enter the continuum (escape from the atom)and so can flow as an electric current.

Answer 11

Look up photoelectric effect. This is what Einstein got a Nobel Prize for studying. It is actually farily interesting. Also you may wish to try looking up "photo-voltaic cell". Both will probably give you much better and clearer answers than I can here.