Solar electricity is created using Solar Photovoltaic panels, or Solar PV for short. The word photovoltaic, or PV, comes from the process of converting light (photons) to electricity (voltage), which is called the PV effect. The key to a solar pv panel is the semiconductor material.
How do solar pv panels create electricity?
Solar PV semiconductors combine some properties of metals and some properties of insulators - making them uniquely capable of converting light into electricity. The simple explanation of how solar panels create electricity is that as sunlight (specifically UV light) strikes the semiconductor materials in the PV cell, the energy knocks loose electrons. Those electrons then move back and forth between semiconductor plates producing an electric current.
