Having dished out plenty of solar power info, I got to think whether or not the majority of people are even unaware of the brains behind the project, the Solar Panel? Whatever the metaphor, lets familiarize us with the photovoltaic physical workings of this super hero enigma.

How They Do And What They Do?

As mentioned, the principles of photovoltaic physics are used to convert the energy of the sun in to electricity rather than just heat. Now the impressive scientific stuff has been duly noted, let me paint a much simpler picture.

Solar cells are not made using pure silicon but instead have impurities added to it. Why? Because pure silicon crystals are non reactive in a stable state, which is not good as the electrons need some form of instability to be productive. So in this context some impurities must be required.

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In this post, you will be taught about something called circuit. Electrons do not work in air to get attracted by positive charged atoms. There is a medium in between which helps link the electrons to the positive charged atoms. The link is what that connects the negative area with the positive area. This is the link or the bridge in between them called as ‘circuit’.

So, circuit is important for the passage of electrons towards the positive charged atoms. The electrons movements, high or slow, depend on the resistance of material. If the circuit is not carefully observed, the number of electrons moving fast at one time can damage the circuit in the process. In our previous post, we learned that there is a strong attraction between the opposite charges and  also we have learned  that  how we can build a circuit between the opposite charges.

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Solar energy is quite expensive and difficult to maintain at large scales but at small scales it is not only cost effective but also the small scale power requirements can be fulfilled by constructing simple solar circuits. These can be used in the decorative items.

Small Solar panel:

The first thing required to create these simple solar circuits is of course a device which will collect the sunlight. You can use a small solar panel made of monolithic copper indium diselenide. These are available in the market and will cost you about 3 to 4 dollars. Two solderable terminals marked with polarity will be there on the back side of the panel. The specifications of the panels are given on it. Usually with that price, the panels may produce 4 to 5 V. 

Direct circuit i.e. direct circuit using the sunlight to run some device:

If you want to use this solar panel directly for producing electricity then connect the load with the terminals of the solar panel. You can run small motors like the motor of the CD player or small bulbs like high power (50 to 90 mA) blue led. If you connect light of greater power then it may be damaged by this amount of current. If you place that circuit near some lamp or in sunlight, it will immediately start working.

This direct usage will not store the energy. Small interruptions in sunlight with suspend the system. This may lead to the blinking of the load connected to this type of direct circuit.

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