Solar Panels
Solar panels pv the sun’s radiation into renewable electricity to power homes, businesses and communities. They can be built on flat or pitched roofs, integrated into walls or ceilings of a building (building-integrated photovoltaics), mounted on the ground or on a pole (ground-mounted) or tracking systems (see PV trackers). Today there are thousands of individual solar panel models available from hundreds of companies. They can be compared by their efficiency, power output, warranties and other characteristics on EnergySage.
A photovoltaic cell is a semiconductor device which converts sunlight into electricity. It is made of a thin layer of semiconductor material with conductive properties. When light strikes the cell it can either pass through or be absorbed, and only the absorbed light provides the electric energy. The cells can be arranged in a panel to produce electricity at various levels of efficiency, based on the requirements for space, cost and performance. Most modern photovoltaic panels use crystalline silicon semiconductor material; however, there are also PV modules which use thin-film semiconductor materials that can be less expensive to manufacture and may achieve higher efficiencies.
Your Guide to Solar Panel Services: Locating and Evaluating Providers Near Your Area
Most solar PV systems are grid-connected. This allows the excess electricity produced to be exported back to the electricity network, where it can be used by other households and businesses. This two-way flow of electricity can create technical challenges in networks which are not designed to deal with it, including voltage and power quality problems and peak demand. This is why many countries require that behind-the-meter PV households install battery storage solutions.