For those not steeped in the field of chemistry, what follows is a quick-and-dirty rundown of how solar panels turn sunlight into electricity.

“Think of a solar cell as an LED in reverse,” explained Steffen Eikenberry, a researcher at the Arizona State University School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, during an hour-long phone interview. With the patience of a teacher explaining things to a C student, Dr. Eikenberry helped me gain a more complete understanding of how solar cells convert sunrays into energy.

LED中的二极管类似于太阳能电池中的两层硅晶体。除了在太阳能电池中，二极管的两层是硅，一个在顶部和另一个下方。为了产生电流，通过称为“掺杂”的化学过程处理这些硅层，其导致电子不平衡。在试图实现平衡时，所得到的电子舞会成为我们所谓的电流。

The top layer of silicon (exposed to the sun) is doped with phosphorus and the bottom layer with boron. Phosphorous has an extra electron, while boron is missing one. Electrons like to achieve stability in even pairs. Stable elements, such as argon, have even pairs. Unstable elements do not, but they seek to establish balance by sharing electrons with complementary elements. In a silicon wafer, electrons achieve equilibrium by pairing up in a matrix of shared electrons—or what we might call a crystal lattice (think snowflakes). But a photon, or a particle of light, precisely aimed and with just the right amount of energy, can knock a single silicon electron right out of its resting place.

When sunlight strikes the top layer of the silicon cell, particles of light, or photons, dislodge electrons from the crystal lattice. Were it not…