Solar

Arrow.com is an authorized distributor of solar devices and components from leading manufacturers including IXYS, Panasonic, Adafruit and MikroElektronica. Shop for solar cells and solar panels by size, max and min current and power, typical open circuit voltage, pin count and more.

Solar devices are a wide variety of components that are used in solar power systems. They are used in alternative energy, off-the-grid applications or any product that requires solar power. Solar cells are semiconductor devices that convert solar radiation into electric power. They do so by the photo-voltaic effect, an electrochemical phenomenon where electrons become excited by absorption of sunlight and leave their orbit. They either dissipate the energy as heat or reduce their potential and return to their orbital by flowing through the electrodes of the cell and the connected circuit. Cells are arranged in arrays to obtain necessary voltage and current characteristics that are referred to as solar panels. Solar panels may contain diodes to ensure current flows in the correct direction and that cells can operate properly in parallel with each other during shadowing effects.