From sand to sunlight: the five components of a solar panel

Polysilicon is melted into a single large crystal or cast into a block. The resulting ingot is a solid cylinder or brick of crystalline silicon ready for slicing.

The ingot is sawn into wafers nearly as thin as a standard sheet of paper – around 150 micrometres.

Wafers are doped, coated and printed with fine metal contacts to create a photovoltaic cell, which converts sunlight into electric current.

Dozens of cells are wired together, laminated behind glass and framed to form modules. Modules are assembled together into panels that can be mounted on the ground, installed on rooftops and wired into the grid.