What are Solar Panels?
It’s common knowledge that solar panels generate electricity from energy provided by the sun. What remains less well known, however, is how this process takes place. As a solar panel installer, we fit photovoltaic (PV) solar panels. This term comes from ‘photo’, meaning light, and ‘voltaic’ as in referring to electricity. Quite simply, converting light into electricity.
The solar panels that we supply consist of multiple solar cells. A small collection of solar cells makes up one panel or module, and several panels create one array. The materials used to create solar cells produce a small electric current when exposed to light. While one cell on its own only generates a small amount of energy, a much larger amount collected and framed on a roof has the potential to produce a significant amount of electricity.
How do Solar Panels Work?
The solar panels provided by Redlands for clients in Kingston, Surrey, and the neighbouring areas, generate renewable energy in the following way:
- Internally, solar cells have two wafer-thin silicon crystal layers, with one on top of the other. The upper layer undergoes a special treatment that creates unstable atoms. In short, they have one too many electrons that they would like to lose. Conversely, the lower layer has been treated to create spaces between atoms that need filling by spare electrons.
- With the electrons themselves determined to move from one layer to the next, the perfect conditions have been created to produce electricity. They can’t move, however, until the silicon crystals on the roofs of properties in Kingston, Surrey and beyond are exposed to light.
- The sunlight that hits the arrays we fit as a solar panel installer energises the electrons, allowing them to move. They then start to flow from the upper layer to the bottom. When electrons move onward in the same direction, we have electricity. With the addition of metal contacts at the sides of the silicon crystals, the electricity then moves around a circuit.
- This electricity, however, is DC (direct current). The electricity used within an office block, or any other commercial building is AC (alternating current). Before the electricity produced by solar panels can be used, it must first pass through an inverter. This vital component converts DC to AC, before sending it through the house to power appliances.
To schedule an initial consultation with a trusted solar panel installer, or for more information regarding renewable energy options in Kingston, Surrey and London, please contact us.
If you’re searching for the right solar panels for your office in Kingston, Surrey or London, call us today.
