With the rising demand for sustainable energy, solar energy is a great option to help cut household electricity bills. Portable solar panels are one great way to access renewable, low-maintenance generators for when you go camping or to charge your devices while on a road trip.
Portable solar panel kits rely on the same technology that drives industrial solar panel farms, with the advantage that these kits can be freely repositioned for better sunlight. Another advantage of portable solar panels over traditional portable generators is that the only moving parts are the electrons in the electricity running through them, meaning that only the batteries create maintenance costs—on the same level as having to replace your car battery now and then.
How Do Solar Panels Work?
Though manufacturing solar panels is complex, their actual mechanics are pretty simple to understand. Instead of relying on burning fuel to rotate parts in an engine to create electricity, solar panels use the movement in sunlight and specially treated parts to make an electrical current.
The Sun Is a Big Constant Explosion
Yes, the energy in sunlight is partially from just movement! The sun is just one giant ball of gas constantly exploding, and the energy from these explosions can travel to Earth through particles in sunlight called photons. Since silicon is semiconductive, we can capture the energy from these photons by letting them strike crystalline silicon that’s been treated, or N-type doped, to have extra electrons. The photons then transfer their power to these extra electrons, giving the silicon on top of solar cells an active negative charge (hence the N part of N-type doping).
Below, we put a thicker layer of silicon crystals treated as gaps in their structure where electrons should be or P-type doped. Since there are more electrons on top and holes that usually have electrons on the bottom, the electrons that are struck by the sunlight will move from the top to the bottom. The space between the N-doped silicon top and the P-doped silicon bottom, which we call a P/N junction, gains an electric charge due to this electron movement.
Solar Panels Collect the Sun’s Explosion
We can then collect the electrons that have taken on the energy from the photons and feed it into a power system. In portable solar panel kits, these come in the form of adapters that regulate the voltage of the direct current, or DC, generated by sunlight and silicon. Hence, it’s usable in batteries and inverters that convert the energy into AC or alternating current to power electronic devices directly. Once the point is used, the electrons simply travel back into the N-type doped silicon layer, creating a loop that produces electricity by capturing the energy of sunlight.
As mentioned, these electrons are the only moving parts in a portable solar panel kit, which means that the features that can generate and distribute electric energy are maintenance-free. This makes the best portable solar panel an excellent investment. Once paid for the system, the renewable energy you can capture nearby solar energy will lower your electricity bills. This is fantastic news for weekend road warriors and sustainability-savvy homeowners.
About the author:
Trevor Fenner is the owner of Solar Paradise, a one-stop shop for Solar kits, portable power stations, portable solar panels, solar generators, solar charge controllers, inverters, solar air conditioners & portable solar fridges freezers. Trevor built Solar Paradise to sell solar kits all over the USA. You can shop for the best solar kits at Solar Paradise.
