How Do Solar Panels Work?

Jan 7th 2023

Big rectangular solar panels seem to pop up everywhere. You can find them on top of buildings, in fields on the side of roads, and even floating on lakes. How do solar panels work?
 

Solar panels capture the energy from the sun and convert it into electrical energy to power a home or even a business. When the light hits these panels it will cause a reaction that produces an electrical current. This current can be converted to electrical energy to power your home, and the excess can be stored or sent into the power grid.

What Is Solar Energy?

The most abundant energy source on Earth is solar energy. Over 173,000 terawatts of solar energy are provided to the Earth from the sun at any given time. This is more than 10,000 times the world's energy needs. Being able to capture and use this energy will help the current climate crisis and can reduce or end our dependency on fossil fuels. 

Solar Energy At Work

The sun is a nuclear reactor that releases energy called photons that travel the 93 million-mile distance to our Earth. If we were able to capture every one of these photons, it would take an hour to capture enough needed to power the entire population of the Earth for an entire year. 

The Unitied States use of solar energy is still relativity small but continues to see an increase every year. The cost of installing solar power is dropping rapidly and our ability to use the energy from the sun is increasing. Solar is the fastest-growing source of energy in the world and continues to break records around the globe. 

Does Weather Impact Solar?

The weather does have an impact on the solar energy the panel can capture. The best solar energy is captured on bright sunny days. Colder weather also affects solar panels. Solar panels can capture more energy in colder weather than in sunny weather.

Warmer temperatures generate less voltage and less electricity. Temperature isn’t the only thing that affects how much the solar panels can capture. Cloudy weather will reduce the efficiency of solar panels. This will allow the sunny summer days to capture more electricity than the closer cloudy days of the winter.

Net Metering

A solar system is capable of producing more energy than one customer is able to use so that energy is fed back into the electrical power grid. The customers who are able to receive net metering will receive credits for the excess energy that is fed back into the power grid. They can use these credits when the solar panels are not producing energy at night or on cloudy days.

Net metering can even cause your contribution to the power grid to be greater than your usage making your system produce a profit from the electric company. 

Storage systems

In addition to net metering, you can install a solar storage system that will be able to store the excess electricity your solar panel system can generate. The system will contain system monitoring, solar production monitoring, home energy usage, and even monitor utility rates to determine which power source to use. 

The storage system will also provide your home with power if there is an interruption to your power grid. With enough storage, you will be able to produce an excess of electricity during the day and continue to use the excess at night staying unaffected by the interruption to the power grid. 

Conclusion

The installation of solar panels will provide your home with the power it can capture from the photons from the sun. These photons will cause an electron in your solar panel to travel on the circuit creating a DC current. With the use of an inverter, the DC current will be transformed into usable AC current to power your home or sent back into the power grid.

Net metering will allow you to receive credits for the excess energy your solar panels can produce and provide to the power grid. You can also install a solar power energy storage system that will contain the excess power your system produces at peak times. You will be able to use this energy when your solar system isn't producing any electricity.

By harnessing the solar that is produced we can provide energy to every person on Earth while reducing our need for fossil fuels and combating our current climate crisis.