Summary reader response draft 2

University of Minnesota Duluth's article ''Solar Power: A Feasible Future'' (Thomas, 2017) talks about what are solar panels and what are they made up of.

According to Nathan Thomas, a solar panel consists of numerous small cells known as photovoltaic cells (PV cells) "linked together make up a solar panel" (Dhar, Harvey, 2022). These cells are made up of  "a top layer of metal conductor strips" "a layer of antireflective coating" and "two silicon layers and a metal backing" (Thomas, 2017). Silicon are semiconductors which are an in between of proper conductors like metals and insulators such as rubbers and may not conduct electricity at room temperatures, only when heated up (Thomas, 2017).


Photovoltaic cells ''converts sunlight to electricity''(Thomas, 2017) "by allowing photons, or particles of light, to knock electrons free from atoms, generating a flow of electricity" (Dhar, Harvey, 2022). The positively charged (p-type) semiconductors lack electrons while the negatively charged (n-type) semiconductors have extra electrons that move over to the p-type to fill the lack of electrons knock one of these donated electrons free, leaving a new hole for another electron to fill its place (Thomas, 2017). Sunlight also known as photons "knock one of these donated electrons free, leaving a new hole for another electron to fill its place"(Thomas, 2017). With these happening millions of times per second, the "electrons that are knocked loose get directed into a path" which creates electric currents (Thomas, 2017).



References

Nathan Thomas (2017, October 6), "Solar Power: A Feasible Future" University of Minnesota Duluth https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/213630/SolarPower_AFeasibleFuture.pdf?sequence=1

Michael Dhar, Ailsa Harvey (2022, February 11) "How do solar panels work?" Live Science https://www.livescience.com/41995-how-do-solar-panels-work.html

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