How Do Solar Panel Fields Work

Compared with other renewable energy systems panels are characterized by their lack of movement.

How do solar panel fields work. The solar panels on your roof are owned by the ppa provider not you. Simply put a solar panel works by allowing photons or particles of light to knock electrons free from atoms generating a flow of electricity. Photovoltaic cells absorb the sun s energy and convert it to dc electricity the solar inverter converts dc electricity from your solar modules to ac electricity which is used by most home. This fully automated process shows how the panels are in a docked.

When solar cells are struck by light they produce a flow of electrons or electric current. Electricity flows through your home. First your solar panels collect particles of light called photons which knock electrons free from their atom hosts. Pv cells also all have one or more electric field that acts to force electrons freed by light absorption to flow in a certain direction.

Since this process happens at such a small scale it is invisible for humans. What to watch out for. Multiple panels are required to generate an appreciable amount of electricity which is why solar farm arrays are so large. First sunlight in the form of photons hit the solar panels on your roof or ground mount.

This electricity is then used to power your home. This time lapse animation demonstrates the cycle which thermal solar fields follow on any given day of adequate sunlight exposure. A solar panel is nothing more than a large group of solar cells made of silicon. Solar panels work by converting sunlight into electricity at the atomic scale.

The cells are networked into a panel each gathering a small amount of energy from sunlight. Solar panels actually comprise many smaller units. There are essentially five steps in the process of solar energy production beginning when sunlight hits your panels and culminating with feeding excess energy back to the grid. Since those contracts usually cover a 25 year period you essentially agree to purchase your energy in advance for a pre negotiated price.

Here are the main steps for how solar panels work for your home. This flow of electrons is a current and by placing metal contacts on the top and bottom of the pv cell we can draw that current off for external use say to power a calculator. A solar farm sometimes referred to as a photovoltaic power station is typically a large decentralized solar array supplying electricity to the power grid.