How It Works

How Solar Energy Works

How Solar Energy Works

When Clean Solar installs a solar system on your house, you are saving money by using the clean and limitless energy of the sun.  You also know that the equipment installed in your home is high-quality and top-of-the-line. Because of this, you don’t have to worry about how your new solar system is functioning.

For many people, seeing the difference in their electric bill is all they need to know.  However, wouldn’t it be nice to know how all the different parts of the system work together to power your home and save you all that money?

Solar Energy Panels, Photovoltaic Cells, and the Inverter

Solar panels convert sunlight into electricity, and batteries provide the ability to store excess energy. It’s as simple as that!

The inverter takes the direct current and inverts it into AC power, which is what we use in our homes and on the utility grid. Batteries provide extra energy storage to ensure you have clean electricity at night and during power outages. Surplus power (not used by the house) goes into the battery or onto the utility grid. When the batteries are full, excess energy is sent back on the grid for a credit determined by the individual utility company. When you need more power than solar or the batteries can provide, energy comes into your home seamlessly from the grid.

Solar Energy is reliable, noise and pollution free energy without the need for fossil fuels.

Battery Storage Saves Power for When the Sun Goes Down

If you have a battery storage device added to your system, the extra generated power is stored in the battery for usage during peak Time of Use rate windows, evening hours, or when power to your local grid is lost. Once the energy needs of the house have been met and the battery filled, solar generated power is fed back through the power grid for you to use at another time. This adds additional power to the grid to be used by other homes and businesses.

Peace of Mind During a Power Outage

When the power goes out, your electricity also goes out. So does your wi-fi, your refrigerator and your lights. When you pair your solar panels with battery storage, you control what happens during an outage. You can use the battery to backup the most critical devices in your home, generally 4-6 breakers per battery. And, you can use the battery to store energy to use when you need it – when utility costs are the highest. Either way, you are in control of your energy usage, not the utility company.

Solar Energy Storage with a Solar Billing Plan Offsets the Cost of the Electricity You Use at Night

With solar, your smart meter is replaced with a net metering system that allows you to receive energy as well as put excess generated solar energy back onto the grid. It is most efficient to put excess energy into a battery for use later in the day and evening. The goal is to put a minimal amount of energy back onto the grid as the export compensation rates are significantly lower than the cost to use the energy from the grid.

Clean Solar designs your solar system so that you maximize your energy independence from the utility grid by generating your own clean energy!