eli5: Do solar panels only work with sunlight, or can they be tuned to capture energy from other wavelengths outside the visible spectrum?

Question

eli5: Do solar panels only work with sunlight, or can they be tuned to capture energy from other wavelengths outside the visible spectrum?

In: 2876

Answer 1

It depends on if you mean a solar panel or photovoltaic panel. The first is basically the heat of the sun it heats up a pipe and this is connected to a water tank to heat up water for cooking or showering, instead of using gas.

The second, photovoltaic, uses photons from the sun. It’s basically a semiconductor aka diode which takes in photons and generates an electric current using a process known as the photoelectric effect

So I guess to answer your question. Solar panels use IR radiation and PV panels use visible lught from the sun however PV panels also use a tiny bit from the IR and UV spectrum. For example an LED emits light in the visible spectrum but some IR and UV too

I hope this makes sense