Hello! Welcome to Solar Sphere.

How To Use Our Site

If this is your first time here, it can be a bit intimidating since we have over 1500 products. The best way to get around is generally the top left green menu. Here you'll see our top-level categories like lights, kits, and gadgets. As you click there you'll see the smaller categories under the top-level categories.

If you can't find what you're looking for there, try the top right green search box on every page. Use simple keywords like 'lamp' or 'plug and play' first before refining your search with longer keyword descriptions.

You can also find items that you have looked at recently by using the tool on the right hand column under the 'You Recently Viewed...' heading.

Our Story of Going Off the Grid

A lot of people want to know how we came to live off the grid.

About 6 years ago we were living right in the heart of a big city, when we suddenly realized that we were not city people. We were fed up with the noise, the pollution, and rude people. Sue and I realized that our weekend trips to the mountains were just not enough to satisfy our needs for the outdoors. It was time to live in the mountains full time.

So we looked for our dream home, but of course our budget was pretty limited. Luckily we found exactly what we were looking for: a nice size house, with a great view, not far from trails, skiing, and water sports. The one problem: there is no power in this neighborhood! Every one uses solar and wind to power their homes. For us, this was just another cool thing about the house, and we took the leap.

And not having a power bill was pretty darn cool too.

Unfortunately our builder didn't really understand how solar and wind worked either. He really under-designed the house and the power system and we had a really tough couple of months trying to figure out how this stuff worked. But we learned A LOT, the hard way, and made it work.

We reduced our power consumption, installed alternate heat sources, and figured out how to use maximize the sun's energy. And along the way, we learned a ton about green energy and self-reliance. And now we're here to help YOU do the same.

If it's a small system to run a few lights or a large industrial power system, we can help you design it and install it! Let us help you empower your world with green energy.

How Solar Panels Work

The most basic definition of how solar panels work is that the sun strikes a certain material, it excites electrons and creates a current and voltage that can be used to power devices. Now let's delve a little deeper.

Silicon: Not Just for Computer Chips

First, silicon is taken from the earth. Silicon is one of the earth's most abundant elements. It's found in sand and rocks of all types. You've probably heard of 'Silicon Valley', the hotbed of technology research and investment in California. It is so called because silicon is used in computer chips.
Silicon is a semi-conductor. Think of copper, a conductor, as in copper wires. Now think of rubber, an insulator, such as the coating on a copper wire. Silicon falls somewhere in between and is therefore called a semi-conductor. This property is exploited in computer chips and solar panels to handle tiny reactions that generate electrical currents.

Just Add Boron and Phosphorous

But silicon by itself is not enough to create power from the sun. The silicon is grown into a very thin crystal-like wafer using pressure and heat. It is then coated with two different materials: boron and phosphorous. Boron is coated on the back contact, phosphorous on the front contact, with a gap in between the two layers. Boron, when combined with silicon, is a positive material, but it wants to be neutral. The only way it can get neutral is to gain an electron, which has a negative charge.
Now enter phosphorous. Phosphorous and silicon is a negatively charged material, meaning it has extra electrons. But it wants to be neutral too! And how can it do that? By getting rid of electrons of course! And how will it get rid of them? That's where the good old sun comes in.


A cross section of a solar panel showing the various layers.
A. Tempered Glass Cover Plate: The cover plate is used to protect the cells from the elements.
B. Anti-reflective coating: This prevent the rays from being reflected OUT of the cell.
C. Contact Grid: The electricity generated by the silicon needs to be able to flow to the terminals. To help with this a grid of wire is placed on top of the silicon so that the electricity can flow through the low resistance wire instead of the silicon. A grid must be used so that most of the silicon is left exposed to the light.
D. Silicon Layers: Silicon is a semiconductor material that is used to convert energy from the sun into electricity that can be used to power our homes. The silicon is the part of the solar cell that does the work. This silicon layer has a negative charge and is coated with phosphorous.
E. Same as the D layer, but this layer has a positive charge and is coated with boron.
F. Bottom Contact: This layer works the same as the contact grid that is placed above the silicon layers. It is used to help the electricity flow to the terminals.

Here Comes The Sun

When sunlight strikes the cell, it gets those electrons all excited. Just think of the electron as a kid in his mom's arms as they approach the park. He just can't wait to get away from mom and onto the swing set. The electrons leave the phosphorous and go toward the positive boron, creating an electrical pressure as they enter the gap. This pressure must be released, and is through the wiring in the cell. This creates the flow, or current, we talked about earlier.

The cells are coated with materials to ensure the sunlight is absorbed and not reflected. The silicon wafers are wired together and encased in tempered glass and aluminum to prevent weather damage. These are called panels, and are then wired together to form an array. And that is the basic building block reaction of a solar panel!