Solar panels

Solar panels convert light into electricity. That's quite simple isn't it ?

If only making them would be equally simple, then maybe they would be cheap :)

A solar panel works by exploiting the photo-voltaic effect. If light strikes certain semiconductors (crystals with some fairly unique properties) then electrons will be freed that can be collected by small wires to complete an electrical cirquit.

There are three different kinds of panels on the market today that lend themselves to being used in a home system, 'Single Crystaline', 'Poly Crystaline' and 'Amorphous'.

Each of these has their own unique properties, making them more or less suitable for your application. Also there is a price difference between the different technologies, and over time this price difference may get more pronounced.

Solar panels are by far the most expensive item in most alternative energy installations, in our installation they make up roughly 40% of the total cost of the system.

For our installation we used 16 Kyocera PV 120 panels, each of which produces 120 Watts of electricity in full sunlight.