Do Solar Panels Use Heat Or Light Energy

Nowadays there are two different technologies which are being used for electricity production solar thermal and solar photovoltaic.

Do solar panels use heat or light energy. The light from the sun heats up the panels which can be used for household hot water or to generate steam and electricity. Sure there s plenty of sunlight. One type of power called solar thermal does use the sun s light to generate heat which can be used for things such as household hot water or to generate steam to drive turbines and generate electricity. The second type of solar power is produced by photovoltaic solar panels.

The solar panels use photovoltaic effects from the harvested light energy of the sun and convert the light energy directly to electricity. The other type of solar power is generated by photovoltaic pv solar panels which use light to generate electricity directly. Now many homeowners think that photovoltaic panels work in the scorching heat. These panels directly make use of light to produce electricity.

Then the heat is used for the various tasks in the home such as boiling water or running generators for lighting homes. Many people think the most efficient place to generate power with photovoltaic pv solar panels is a scorching hot desert where the sun bakes everything. But the most important part harvested by a standard solar panel is the light. When you get an array of panels installed on your site you realize that they are absorbing both light and heat energy.

Sure there s plenty of sunlight. But those panels involve complex integration with hot water systems to operate. Solar photovoltaic solar pv panels use light energy to generate electricity. Only a part of the visible spectrum gets converted to electricity through excitation of electrons from valence band to conduction band and out of the rest of electromagnetic spectrum a part of the light energy dissipates as heat depending on the materials used.

Many people think the most efficient place to generate power with photovoltaic pv solar panels is a scorching hot desert where the sun bakes everything. However photovoltaic panels use only light for energy harvesting. They couldn t be more wrong. They couldn t be more wrong.