What is the difference between a solar cell and a solar panel?

Question

are these two one and the same? or does the panel can not function without the cell and vice versa?

i need to construct a battery charger using solar energy.. which one would i need? is solar panel enough? solar cell? or do i need to have both?

im quite confused. please help me.

^_^

Answer 1

Each cell generates about 0.5 Volts. To get more voltage, the cells are connected in series. To get more current, more cells are added in parallel. A Solar Panel is the result.

Answer 2

solar cells collect the energy and a solar panel is just a bunch of solar cells connected together to get more energy.