Whether on a solar-powered-calculator or a space station, solar panels generate electricity using the same principles of electronics as chemical batteries or electrical outlets. Solar panels are about the free flow of electrons through a solar designed circuit.

The basic element of solar panels is the same element that helped create the computer revolution using pure silicon. When silicon is stripped of all impurities, it creates ideal neutral platforms transmitting electrons. Silicon also has atomic level properties which make it ideal for the creation of solar panels.

Silicon has room for eight electrons in their outer atomic bands, but just carries four in their natural state. This means there is room for four more electrons. If one silicon atom contacts another silicon atom, each receives the other atom’s four electrons and this creates a strong bond.  The atom has no positive or negative charge because the eight electrons satisfy the atoms’ state. Silicon atoms can combine for years becoming a large piece of pure silicon. This material is used to form the cell plates of solar panels.

Two cell plates of pure silicon would not generate electricity, because there is no positive or negative charge. So, solar panels are created by combining silicon with other elements that do have positive or negative charges. Phosphorus has five electrons to offer to other atoms. If silicon and phosphorus are combined chemically, the result is a stable eight electrons with an additional free electron available to connect. It cannot leave, because it is bonded to the other phosphorus atoms, but it’s not needed by the silicon. Therefore, this new silicon-phosphorus plate is considered to be negatively charged.

In order for electricity to flow, a positive charge must also be created. This is achieved in solar panels by combining silicon with an element such as boron, which only has three electrons. A silicon-boron cell plate still has one spot left for another electron. This means the cell plate has a positive charge. The two cell plates are sandwiched together in solar panels, with conductive wires running between them.

Natural sunlight sends out different particle types of energy, but solar panels are interested in photons. A photon acts like a moving wave. When the negative plates of solar cells are pointed at a proper angle to the sun, photons bombard the silicon-phosphorus atoms.

At some point the 9th electron, which wants to be free, is knocked off the outer ring. This electron doesn’t remain free for long, since the positive silicon-boron plate draws it into the open spot on its own outer band. As the sun’s photon waves break off more electrons, electricity is generated. Whatever electrons are not lost in the air are returned to the negative cell plate and the entire process begins again.

The same sunlight that provides photons also provides destructive ultraviolet and infrared waves, which eventually cause the panels to degrade physically on a linear scale.  The reason PEP Solar uses single crystal panels or Monocrystalline cells.

A technical statement for Monocrystalline cells:  A single crystal solid is a material in which the crystal lattice of the entire sample is continuous and unbroken to the edges of the sample, with no grain boundaries. The opposite of a single crystal sample is an amorphous structure where the atomic position is limited to short range order only. In between the two extremes exist polycrystalline and paracrystalline phases, which are made up of a number of smaller crystals known as crystallites.  Because of a variety of entropic effects on the microstructure of solids, including the distorting effects of impurities and the mobility of crystallographic defects and dislocations, single crystals of meaningful size are exceedingly rare in nature, and are also difficult to produce in the laboratory, though can be made – under controlled conditions (see also recrystallisation).

1839 – 1899

Discovery of photovoltaic effect, basic phenomena and PV materials

A physical phenomenon allowing light-electricity conversion – photovoltaic effect, was discovered in by 1839 the French physicist Alexandre Edmond Becquerel. Experimenting with metal electrodes and electrolyte he discovered that conductance rises with illumination.

1877

Solar Cells, first created cell

Willoughby Smith discovered photovoltaic effect in selenium in 1873. In 1876, with his student R. E. Day, William G Adams discovered that illuminating a junction between selenium and platinum also has a photovoltaic effect. These two discoveries were a foundation for the first selenium solar cell construction, which was built in 1877. Charles Fritts first described them in detail in 1883.

1887

Electric Affect, metal electrodes spark

In 1887, Heinrich Hertz discovered that ultraviolet light changes the voltage at which sparks between two metal electrodes would be initiated.

1900 – 1949

Theoretical explanation, the photovoltaic and solar cell effect

The author of the most comprehensive theoretical work about the photovoltaic effect was Albert Einstein, who described the phenomenon in 1904. For his theoretical explanation he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1921. Einstein’s theoretical explanation was proved by Robert Millikan’s experiment in 1916

1918 – 1941

In 1918, a Polish scientist Jan Czochralski discovered a method for Monocrystalline silicon production, which enabled Monocrystalline solar cells production. The first silicon Monocrystalline solar cell was constructed in 1941.

So, PEP Solar has good reason to have chosen Monocrystalline modules for your solar roof top.  It is proven, it is not experimental, and it has been around for over 60 years.  In 2006 Wall Street investors are now supporting Monocrystalline as the number one product for solar.  It has had the longest test time of any product materials in the world.  PEP Solar still has connected and integrated solar systems from 27 years ago.  If you have any questions, please contact us at (623) 806-8806 or visit our web page at www.phoenixenergyproducts.com