Can someone tell me how solar panels work?
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Solar panels work because they are made from a semi-conducting material.  You have to view the solar cell as a kind of capacitor, with one region above the depletion zone(top plate), and another plate below the depletion zone (bottom plate).  The incident light hitting the depletion region, injects charges into the latter.  The freed electrons and their corresponding holes will move through the region under the action of the electric field between the plates. The semi-conducting material acts like a capacitor, holding electrons on one side of the plate, and the holes on the other side of the plate.  A force is required to move the electrons out of position.  This is the sunlight.  A combination of wavelenghts and  photons the duality of light...
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http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/solar.htm\n\nThis is a favorite source of future energy for many people, comforted by the thought that it is unlimited. But, quite the contrary is true. The Sun will exist for a long time, but at any given place on the Earth's surface the amount of sunlight received is limited--only so much is received. And at night, or with overcast skies, or in high latitudes where winter days are short and for months there may be no daylight at all, the sunlight received is very limited at times. Direct conversion of sunlight to electricity by solar cells is a promising field, but the amount of electricity that can be generated by that method is not great compared with demand. The conversion efficiency is low, about 12 percent with present technology.\n\nSolar energy in quantity requires huge installations. It has been estimated that an area of 60 square miles in relatively clear central Oregon would have to be covered with solar cells in order to meet the present electric needs of that State. About 10% of the cells have to be replaced each year. But the big problem is how to store significant amounts of electricity when the Sun is not available to produce it. That problem remains unsolved. The statement that "solar energy will not make next century's electricity" is probably right. And the end product is electricity--a very limited replacement for oil.
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Build a solar cell from a couple of thin sheets of copper and some salt water.  It requires a heat source, but with parental supervision it can be done by a 4th grader.  Easy!\n\n(see links below for how it's done)
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The big expense is the cost of setting up.  Solar power is not particularly efficient at the moment so you have a lot of infrastructure that you have to put in.  Australia has just started funding a solar project recently\n\nhttp://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20645117-28737,00.html\nhttp://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/international/news/20061025p2g00m0in017000c.html\n\nThese are a few articles on it.  The other costs are the drawbacks.  You have to store the power because power usually peaks at night time and solar power peaks during the day.  So you have the cost of energy storage on top of the plant costs.  To be totally honest with you I don't think anybody has a very accurate idea yet on how much it will cost to produce solar power.  It is an older technology but it has not until recently been investigated on the scale that people are looking producing today.  So there are costs of unforseen problems that will have to be factored in.  These costs should drop over time as solar power becomes more common but the initial outlay may be substantial.\n\nAnyway I wish I had more to say, Good luck with your research project.
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you can purchase solar systems all over the place, they are made by dozens of different companies.  however, if you are planning on convering your entire home over to solar you should definitley read more about them as it would require a very large number of cells for the average house.  in addition, the setup can be quite complex
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Typically a solar panel would be used to charge a 12 volt battery in circumstances where 110volt is not available.  12 volt power can be used for a lot of different things.
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Solar Cells\n\nSolar cells (as the name implies) are designed to convert (at least a portion of) available light into electrical energy. They do this without the use of either chemical reactions or moving parts.\n\nHistory\nThe development of the solar cell stems from the work of the French physicist Antoine-César Becquerel in 1839. Becquerel discovered the photovoltaic effect while experimenting with a solid electrode in an electrolyte solution; he observed that voltage developed when light fell upon the electrode. About 50 years later, Charles Fritts constructed the first true solar cells using junctions formed by coating the semiconductor selenium with an ultrathin, nearly transparent layer of gold. Fritts's devices were very inefficient, transforming less than 1 percent of the absorbed light into electrical energy.\n\nBy 1927 another metalÐsemiconductor-junction solar cell, in this case made of copper and the semiconductor copper oxide, had been demonstrated. By the 1930s both the selenium cell and the copper oxide cell were being employed in light-sensitive devices, such as photometers, for use in photography. These early solar cells, however, still had energy-conversion efficiencies of less than 1 percent. This impasse was finally overcome with the development of the silicon solar cell by Russell Ohl in 1941. In 1954, three other American researchers, G.L. Pearson, Daryl Chapin, and Calvin Fuller, demonstrated a silicon solar cell capable of a 6-percent energy-conversion efficiency when used in direct sunlight. By the late 1980s silicon cells, as well as those made of gallium arsenide, with efficiencies of more than 20 percent had been fabricated. In 1989 a concentrator solar cell, a type of device in which sunlight is concentrated onto the cell surface by means of lenses, achieved an efficiency of 37 percent due to the increased intensity of the collected energy. In general, solar cells of widely varying efficiencies and cost are now available.\n\nStructure\nModern solar cells are based on semiconductor physics -- they are basically just P-N junction photodiodes with a very large light-sensitive area. The photovoltaic effect, which causes the cell to convert light directly into electrical energy, occurs in the three energy-conversion layers.\n\n\nDiagram courtesy U.S. Department of Energy\nThe first of these three layers necessary for energy conversion in a solar cell is the top junction layer (made of N-type semiconductor ). The next layer in the structure is the core of the device; this is the absorber layer (the P-N junction). The last of the energy-conversion layers is the back junction layer (made of P-type semiconductor).\n\nAs may be seen in the above diagram, there are two additional layers that must be present in a solar cell. These are the electrical contact layers. There must obviously be two such layers to allow electric current to flow out of and into the cell. The electrical contact layer on the face of the cell where light enters is generally present in some grid pattern and is composed of a good conductor such as a metal. The grid pattern does not cover the entire face of the cell since grid materials, though good electrical conductors, are generally not transparent to light. Hence, the grid pattern must be widely spaced to allow light to enter the solar cell but not to the extent that the electrical contact layer will have difficulty collecting the current produced by the cell. The back electrical contact layer has no such diametrically opposed restrictions. It need simply function as an electrical contact and thus covers the entire back surface of the cell structure. Because the back layer must be a very good electrical conductor, it is always made of metal.\n\nOperation\nSolar cells are characterized by a maximum Open Circuit Voltage (Voc) at zero output current and a Short Circuit Current (Isc) at zero output voltage. Since power can be computed via this equation:\n\nP = I * V\nThen with one te
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Photons from the light of the sun strike atoms in a solar cell and cause electrons to move.  This electricity coming out of the cell (assuming a completed circuit) goes to a storage battery and/or an inverter which converts the DC (what batteries and solar cells generate) to AC (which household appliances use).
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As taken from the EERE Solar energy basics website:\n\n"Sunlight—solar energy—can be used to generate electricity, provide hot water, and to heat, cool, and light buildings.\n\nPhotovoltaic (solar cell) systems convert sunlight directly into electricity. A solar or PV cell consists of semiconducting material that absorbs the sunlight. The solar energy knocks electrons loose from their atoms, allowing the electrons to flow through the material to produce electricity. PV cells are typically combined into modules that hold about 40 cells. About 10 of these modules are mounted in PV arrays. PV arrays can be used to generate electricity for a single building or, in large numbers, for a power plant. A power plant can also use a concentrating solar power system, which uses the sun's heat to generate electricity. The sunlight is collected and focused with mirrors to create a high-intensity heat source. This heat source produces steam or mechanical power to run a generator that creates electricity."
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http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/radabaugh30.html\nhttp://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/science_fair_projects/89/393/42e5f26dcd2e5ccd20cee4891a8e032f.html\nhttp://www.panda.org/news_facts/education/middle_school/homework_help/project_ideas/index.cfm?pjid=2\nhttp://www.worsleyschool.net/science/files/solar/cooker.html
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I've heard you won't make any money doing it. If you 'sell' to them more than you use from them, they don't give any money for the extra.\n\ni.e. you have a solar panel and use some of their electricity at night but make more than you need during the day.
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NO! You need special equipment to make any hook up to the electrical system. Solar panels are direct current or DC and your electrical service is alternating current or AC. You would need inverters and phase matching equipment to make those kinds of connections.\n\nFor a Photovoltaics system to work properly you will need batteries for storage, wiring to handle the system amperage , inverters, phase converters, and fairly large arrays of solar panels to make the system worth while.
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I think you mean photovoltaic - photocells that generate a voltage when illuminated
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Hi,\n\nIf your in the UK their is a good electrical componant company that sell alsorts of stuff i believe they sell solar cells ranging from 2.0v - 6.5v but you can bank them to create larger voltages. www.maplin.co.uk\n\nIf your in the US www.mouser.com is good (as im UK i haven't used this though it is widely described as a good company for componants by the yanks.\n\nGood Luck!!\n\nWill
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Solar photovoltaic panels contain arrays of solar cells that convert light into electricity. Solar cells, or PV cells, rely on the photovoltaic effect, which describes how certain materials can convert sunlight into electricity to absorb the energy of the sun and cause current to flow between two oppositely charged layers. Individual solar cells provide a relatively small amount of power, but electrical output is significant when connected together as an array making up a panel.\n\nOn a bright day, the sun delivers about 1 kW/m² to the Earth's surface. Typical solar panels have an average efficiency of 12%, with the best commercially available panels at 20%, and recent prototype panels at around 30%. This would result in 200 W/m². However, not all days have bright sunlight, and therefore not enough solar energy can be captured.\n\nA solar water heater uses the sun's energy to heat a fluid, which is used to transfer the heat to a heat storage vessel. In the home, for example, sanitary hot water would be heated and stored in a hot water cylinder. Panels on the roof have an absorber plate to which fluid circulation tubes are attached. The absorber, usually coated with a dark selective coating, assures the conversion of the sun's radiation into heat, while fluid circulating through the tubes carries the heat away where it can be used or stored. The heated fluid is pumped to a heat exchanger, which is a coil in the storage vessel or an external heat exchanger where it gives off its heat and is then circulated back to the panel to be reheated. This provides an effective way of harnessing the sun's energy.
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Solar Energy\n* inexpensive (free, only maintenance costs of the device)\n* does not work well on cloudy days or days when the sprayers fly, or does not work at all (needs electric back up)\n* Active solar: e.g. the heat is forced down from the ceiling, gathered by voltaic cells (solar panels). \n* Passive solar, a wall within a glass enclosure is painted black and absorbs the heat (green house effect maximized). Warm air can blow through a hole in the upper black wall into the room behind the black wall.\n* Solar energy prevents pollution.\n* Solar energy does not drain the oil reserves of the earth.\n* There are solar warm water heaters, heaters and cookers.\n* Solar cookers and passive solar can be self-made.\n* Solar energy is used simply by opening the curtains and letting the sun shine on tile floor.\n\nLet the sun shine and the skies again be blue!\nCordially, India.Magica
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Hope you find this helpful read through it its pretty basic but it will a good idea of how they work\n\nhttp://www.howstuffworks.com/fuel-cell.htm