In trying to reap the benefits of solar energy, it helps to have a few basics down.  Solar panels (aka solar modules) are the standard building blocks of any solar installation.  Two or more solar panels make up a solar array, which can be mounted on a roof, as an overhang, or on ground mounted stands. Generally To realize the benefits of solar energy you will need an array of 6-12 panels with a properly sized inverter.

Solar photovoltaic panels produce electricity from sunlight.  That’s right, no moving parts, it just sits in the sun, gets a tan and runs your computer.  It can do this because the panel is made up of dozens of solar cells, which are generally thin wafers of silicon or a cadmium film that have special material properties allowing electrons to get excited in the sun.

Now, electrons are sub-atomic party animals: they love to flow, hang with friends, and will leave perfectly stable orbital relationships because some crazy photon comes along and crashes into them. Thus excited by light, our electron friends start to look for the path of least resistance, namely the silver wires bonded to the solar cell.

To you and me, these thin strips of silver are easily broken wires, but to our excited electron friends, they’re freeways.  So these little guys go cruising, and when enough of them get going, we have power. In fact, each panel produces between 180-315 watts of power when the sun is shining brightest, which is enough to charge a laptop or turn on a few lights.  If we wanted to microwave some nachos, we’d need a few more panels.  And if we wanted nachos on a partly cloudy day, we’d needs still more panels.  Hence, the suggestion of at least 6-12 panels to begin to realize the benefits of solar energy.

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Cheers,

Mike