Solar panels how do they work

First, light strikes a photovoltaic cell and is absorbed by the semiconducting material it is made from usually silicon. These incoming photons cause electrons in the silicon to be knocked loose, which will eventually become the solar electricity you can use in your home.

This electric field causes loose electrons to flow in one direction through the solar cell, generating an electrical current. The elements phosphorus and boron are commonly used to create these positive and negative sides to a photovoltaic cell. Once an electrical current is generated by loose electrons, metal plates on the sides of each solar cell collect those electrons and transfer them to wires.

At this point, electrons can flow as electricity through the wiring to a solar inverter and then throughout your home. Two of the most common alternative solar options that work differently than PV panels are solar hot water and concentrated solar power.

Solar hot water systems capture thermal energy from the sun and use it to heat water for your home. These systems are made of a few major components: collectors, a storage tank, a heat exchanger, a controller system, and a backup heater. Instead, the panels transform sunlight into heat. They collect energy very differently than traditional photovoltaic panels — instead of generating electricity, they generate heat.

Concentrated solar power also known as concentrating solar power or concentrating solar-thermal power works in a similar way to solar hot water, in that it transforms sunlight into heat. CSP technology produces electricity by concentrating solar thermal energy using mirrors.

At a CSP installation, mirrors reflect the sun to a focal point. At this focal point is an absorber or receiver that collects and stores heat energy. CSP is most often used in utility-scale installations to help provide power to an electricity grid. Any home that is connected to the electrical grid will have something called a utility meter that your utility company uses to measure and supply power to your home.

Most homeowners in the U. If you have net metering, you can send power to the grid when your solar system is overproducing like during the day in sunny summer months in exchange for credits on your electric bill. These solar energy systems must be integrated into homes, businesses, and existing electrical grids with varying mixtures of traditional and other renewable energy sources.

A number of non-hardware costs, known as soft costs, also impact the cost of solar energy. These costs include permitting, financing, and installing solar, as well as the expenses solar companies incur to acquire new customers, pay suppliers, and cover their bottom line. For rooftop solar energy systems, soft costs represent the largest share of total costs. Solar energy can help to reduce the cost of electricity, contribute to a resilient electrical grid, create jobs and spur economic growth, generate back-up power for nighttime and outages when paired with storage, and operate at similar efficiency on both small and large scales.

Solar energy systems come in all shapes and sizes. Residential systems are found on rooftops across the United States, and businesses are also opting to install solar panels. Utilities, too, are building large solar power plants to provide energy to all customers connected to the grid. Any electricity that is not consumed via the breaker box is sent to the utility grid through the utility meter our last step, as outlined above. The utility meter measures the flow of electricity from the grid to your property and vice versa.

When your solar energy system is producing more electricity than you are using on site, this meter actually runs backwards, and you are credited for the excess electricity generated through the process of net metering. When you are using more electricity than your solar array is generating, you pull supplemental electricity from the grid through this meter, making it run normally. Unless you have gone completely off-grid through a storage solution, you will need to pull some energy from the grid, especially at night, when your solar array is not producing.

However, much of this grid energy will be offset from the excess solar energy you generate throughout the day and in periods of lower usage. An experienced solar developer can walk you through these benefits and help you explore if a solar solution is right for your business. The inverter converts the electricity from DC to AC, which you can then use to power your home. And what happens at night when your solar system is not generating power in real time? A typical grid-tied PV system, during peak daylight hours, frequently produces more energy than one customer needs, so that excess energy is fed back into the grid for use elsewhere.

The customer gets credit for the excess energy produced, and can use that credit to draw from the conventional grid at night or on cloudy days. Read more about solar savings here. How Do Solar Panels Work?

What are Solar Panels Made of? What Does a Solar Inverter Do? Related blogs. Going Solar. Thinking about going solar? Start saving on your electricity bill with our record-breaking solar technology. Yes, I am. For purchases in the United States and Canada visit sunpower. Fill out the form below or call us directly at 1 What is your interest?