The Physics And Engineering Of Ph... | Solar Energy:

In a semiconductor, electrons exist in a "valence band" where they are bound to atoms. Above this is the "conduction band." The energy difference between these two is the band gap.

Because solar cells produce Direct Current (DC), engineering the inverter is critical. These devices convert DC into the Alternating Current (AC) used by the power grid and home appliances, often using complex software to "track" the sun’s peak intensity (Maximum Power Point Tracking). The Future: Beyond Silicon Solar Energy: The Physics and Engineering of Ph...

The engineering frontier is currently focused on and Tandem Cells . While traditional silicon cells have a theoretical efficiency limit (the Shockley-Queisser limit) of about 33%, layering different materials allows the cell to capture different parts of the light spectrum. In a semiconductor, electrons exist in a "valence

When a photon (a particle of light) hits the solar cell with energy equal to or greater than the band gap, it knocks an electron loose. This creates an electron-hole pair . These devices convert DC into the Alternating Current