How Solar Energy Works

[Narrator] Sunlight travels through the atmosphere and is absorbed by solar panels. Solar panels convert sunlight to direct current. An inverter converts electricity from direct current to alternating current, which is used as electricity for homes in a community.

Have you ever wondered how solar energy gets from the sun to your home? Let’s take a closer look at how this is done with this solar energy animation.

(From left to right, we see a yellow circle with yellow u-like waves around it like what you would create if you were making a birthday streamer, the sun. There are wavy yellow lines coming off of the bottom right side of the sun. The waves from the sun come down and touch a large white and dark blue rectangle that is slightly tilted to catch the rays, the solar panel. The dark blue and white solar panel has smaller rectangles inside set up in a grid pattern that is six rows across and eleven rows down. The grid pattern makes the solar panel look like a display panel of dark blue window blinds that are close to keep out the sun. The text above the solar panel reads “Solar panels convert sunlight into direct current (DC).”)

[Narrator] Sunlight travels through the atmosphere and is absorbed by solar panels.

(In the upper right corner of the solar panel, there is a thick black line coming off of the solar panel with two yellow arrows on either side of the black line. The yellow arrows point right and follow the black line down to the white inverter box. The white inverter box looks like a microwave oven. On the side that is facing us, it has three vents lined up vertically from the top of the inverter box to the bottom. The box is turned so that we can see a front rectangle like the window on a microwave with two circles underneath. The text below the inverter box says “An inverter converts electricity from DC to alternating current (AC).”)

[Narrator] An inverter converts electricity from direct current to alternating current,

(The thick black line is now coming out of the bottom right of the white inverter box. There is now only one yellow arrow that is moving down and right along the thick black. The home to the right of the inverter box has a yellow light bulb above it and is a dark yellow two story home with a dark red roof. The second floor of the home has three windows equally spaced. The center window is larger than the other two rectangular windows and looks like a set of six windows in the shape of a glass house. The first floor of the home has two rectangular windows on either side of the rectangular, dark red front door. The thick black line with the yellow arrow runs up to and touches the front door of the house. The text below the home says “The AC powers your home.”)

[Narrator] which is used as electricity for homes in a community.