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Lesson · Grade 7 · Science

Solar power: how a solar panel turns sunlight into electricity

  • Grade 7
  • Science
  • 1 min 16 s
  • British Columbia
  • BC7-SC-28

A house with a panel on its roof builds up step by step: sunlight arrives from the Sun, a close-up in the working panel shows the two silicon layers of one cell, light knocking electrons loose, and the electrons flowing round a wire as a current that lights a lamp in the house. The video then weighs the impacts (nothing burned, sunlight that will not run out, nothing at night so batteries or the grid fill in, and the energy it takes to make panels) and ends on the recap "Sunlight in, electricity out, nothing burned". The new file is scenes/lib_sci_solar_power.py with 15 spoken lines; the draft renders without errors at about 65 seconds.

Concept: Solar power

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In one sentence

The question this lesson answers

How does a solar panel turn sunlight into electricity?

Light from the Sun carries energy.

Transcript

What the lesson says

How does a solar panel turn sunlight into electricity?

Light from the Sun carries energy.

A solar panel on the roof catches that light.

The panel is made of many small solar cells.

Each cell has two thin layers of a material called silicon.

When light hits the silicon, it knocks some electrons loose.

The loose electrons flow out through a wire and round to the other layer.

A flow of electrons is an electric current.

The current can light a lamp or power a home.

Nothing is burned, so there is no smoke and no carbon dioxide.

Sunlight is free and will not run out, so solar power is renewable.

But at night, or under thick cloud, a panel makes little or no electricity.

Homes then use batteries, or electricity from the grid.

Making the panels also uses energy and materials.

Solar panels turn sunlight straight into electricity, with no fuel burned.

Curriculum

Where this fits

British Columbia, Grade 7

Science, Physics: electricity is generated in different ways with different environmental impactsBC7-SC-28

Previous: Wind power: how moving air becomes electricityNext: Coal Power: From Burning Coal to Electricity

The outcomes and strands follow the British Columbia curriculum.

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