When the stuffy noisy bustle of the city starts to close in its time to escape. That means either the Sierra Mountains or Grand Canyon and it also means going off-grid with my favorite portable solar charger. As the years passed the romance of the West Coast big city life has grown old. Travel in the desert brings a sence of peace only heightened by a hike or a camp under the stars. In case you were wondering, the picture was taken at Deer Creek in the Grand Canyon with one of my BFF.
Just watching a portable solar charger sun suck and make energy is always fascinating to me. I totally get how a portable solar panel absorbs protons from the sun to make electricity to charge all types of portable electronics, but it still makes me nostalgic and a little dreamy.
Going back to the days of chemistry, you might remember a thing or two about electrons and protons. A portable solar panel is 2 plates with wires sandwiched together that use basic chemistry to create electricity. As you might recall, electrons have a negative charge and protons have a positive charge. This is important in understanding the basics of how solar power works.
One plate in the portable solar panel is made up of silicon and phosphorus. This results in having one more electron than is needed. Because of the extra electron, that plate has a negative charge. On the other hand, the other place has a positive charge. This plate is made out of silicon and boron, which leaves one extra proton in the outer “orbit”
So how do these two plates create electricity with a little help from the sun? Well when the sun releases energy, it releases many different types of particles. This is what creates light and heat. The main type of particle we’re interested in for the portable solar panels is the protons sent down from the sun. One of the products produced protons bombard the silicon / phosphorus plate, which has the extra electron floating around.
Eventually that extra electron gets knocked off the outer ring. It doesn’t just float around though, because the silicon / boron plate attracts the electron (due to having a natural positive charge, and positive charges attract electrons).
As the electrons get pushed off of the first plate, electricity is created. This electricity is sent through the wires connecting the plates, which can then be used to power low amperage motors, light bulbs, or other electronic devices!
This is a wonderful method to create electricity because solar energy isn’t going away, whereas the amount of coal, natural gas, and petroleum in the earth is very limited. For me though, portable solar represents an escape into the silence of the great outdoors.
Contributing Source Explore Green Energy