system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:How do solar cells actually work?
gpt
Ok, here is a very rough explanation, assuming you know what atoms and electrons are:
Solar cells consist of a semiconductor, for example silicon. There are two zones in the cell, one is positively charged and one is negatively charged (due to a process called doping, which means bringing atoms of other elements into the silicon).
Semiconductors normally do not really conduct electrons, like metals do, only if the electrons have additional energy. Where does that energy come from? From the light (often "photons" are mentioned here, which are light-particles, but that is another topic). So the light hits the semiconductor, gives an electron additional energy so it now can move freely. At the place where the electron used to be is now a hole (positively charged, as the electron is negative). The hole can also "move" when an electron from a neighbouring atom jumps into the hole - from a point of view the hole has moved to the other atom.
So the hole moves to the negative zone and the electron moves to the positive zone, from where it moves further through an electrode and cables and your lamp or motor or whatever you want to power, and finally fills the hole on the other side of the cell.