Understanding Solar Panels For Dummies

He discovered that certain materials would produce a small electric current when you exposed them to light.

Understanding solar panels for dummies.

First there are panels which collect the sunlight and turn it into electricity. The inverter is the component most likely to fail in a solar power system installation in the first 10 15 years. It takes multiple panels to provide power to a typical home or office. Powering your home with solar is now cost competitive with energy produced from your coal powered utility.

Solar panels are made by laying out a grid of these cells on a protective backsheet and covering them with glass on the front. The job of the inverter is to convert the dc electricity solar panels produce into 230v ac electricity which is what everything in your home uses. The photoelectric effect was first noted back in 1839 by a french physicist named edmund bequerel. Solar power your home for dummies cheat sheet.

The dc signals are fed into an inverter which converts the dc into grid compatible ac power which is what you use in your home. A collection of panels in your system is called an array. This is because they work hard all day and they do wear out. They are the units that trap the sun s solar radiation and converts it to electricity.

The main building blocks of a solar energy power system are solar panels. Solar panel cost has plummeted 70 in the last 5 years. A solar panel consists of an array of pv aka photovoltaic pv photo light voltaics electricity cells which consist of a positive and a negative wafer of silicon placed under a toughened layer of glass. Solar intertie photovoltaic pv systems are not particularly complex.

The solar cell is wired together to form a module and the module is then wired together to form a solar panel. Solar energy is free and it is located everywhere where the sun is shining. Pv solar panels produce your electricity using something called the photoelectric effect. This is the principle used by pv solar panels.

Even without major advances in solar panel output solar has become a cost competitive energy source. Understanding solar panels for dummies. This electricity is then used to supply electrical loads as well as stored in batteries for stand alone systems. The words solar power often bring to mind solar panels and photovoltaic pv solar systems but you can harness the sun s energy in a number of smaller ways.