

This leaves behind a "hole" in the valence band that the electron jumped up from. This causes the electrons to jump to a higher energy state known as the conduction band. Specifically, the energy is transferred to the electrons in the material. Spectrolabs Space Solar Panels (without the substrate) are specified as: 1.76 kg/m² for 3 mil thickness of coverglass 2.06 kg/m² for 6 mil thickness of coverglass Spectrolab is the company that made the panels for the Iridium NEXT satellites solar arrays, so this should be pretty representative of the current state. When light of a suitable wavelength is incident on these cells, energy from the photon is transferred to an atom of the semiconducting material in the p-n junction. The theory of solar cells explains the process by which light energy in photons is converted into electric current when the photons strike a suitable semiconductor device. These photons can be absorbed by a photovoltaic cell - the type of cell that composes solar panels. Light is composed of photons, which are simply small bundles of electromagnetic radiation or energy. This field causes negatively charged particles to move in one direction and positively charged particles in the other direction. By joining these two types of semiconductors, an electric field is formed in the region of the junction as electrons move to the positive p-side and holes move to the negative n-side. To read the background on what these semiconductors are and what the junction is, click here. These solar cells are composed of two different types of semiconductors - a p-type and an n-type - that are joined together to create a p-n junction. The photovoltaic effect occurs in solar cells. When doing experiments involving wet cells, he noted that the voltage of the cell increased when its silver plates were exposed to the sunlight. The photovoltaic effect was first discovered in 1839 by Edmond Becquerel. It is this effect that makes solar panels useful, as it is how the cells within the panel convert sunlight to electrical energy. The photovoltaic effect is a process that generates voltage or electric current in a photovoltaic cell when it is exposed to sunlight.
