Solar Power

We Simplify the Process

Solar energy has been around for decades and now it is very common, but do you understand how it actually works?

The common and most often used type of solar energy is what is known as PV or photovoltaic. It is a system of electricity that contains the panels that we might see on residencies and businesses, but there is more to this system than solar panels. The process also contains an inverter and a meter and other essential parts like cables, mounting devices and other items.

These types of system are virtually maintenance free for many years ahead of the installation. It does depend on where your place of business or residence is, as to how much sunlight is received and converted into usable energy but it has the potential to be a huge money saver for everyone not to mention the perk of going green and doing our part in saving our planet, minimising the effects of modern technology and our modern world needs.

Sun hits Solar Panel

By accepting the particles of light that come from the sun into our design engineering, a solar panel collects the energy from the sun and convert it to energy for your home or business. They contain what is called photovoltaic cells that do the conversion work between sunlight and energy, which is DC energy at this point.

The main part of the solar panel that does the work and is the powerhouse behind all this is what is known as the solar cell. They are usually made of semiconductor materials.

Within the solar panel you have a few components, a module of connection cells, these depend on the size of the solar panel system. The more panels, the more capability to generate energy from the sunlight.

Some factors determine how much power your panels will generate such as the size of the panels themselves, how many you have and where they are installed regarding sunlight and weather conditions.

Inverter

This DC energy is then moved along into the inverter which is designed to then convert this DC energy into AC energy electricity. The inverter is a very important part of the system, this changes the energy so it can be used within your home or business.

Meter

The meter is a gauge of how much electricity is generated by the panels and inverter compared to how much is used by the residence or business.

Excess Energy – Grid

If there is any excess energy not being used it will go back into what is known as a grid, when this happens, called net metering, your local utility company will give you credit towards your bill for this extra.

Excess Energy – Battery

In some solar energy situations, there are also batteries that are used to store the energy that isn’t used at any given time to be utilised later when it becomes necessary, on a rainy day or days or during storms, etc.

It may seem confusing at first, but these types of systems work to create as alternate power source, they are more cost effective and used to save the planets resources and leave a smaller footprint on this earth.

Solar Energy – How it works!

How much power will my panels generate?

The output of a solar PV system depends on its size. The most common household systems are 5 kilowatts today, although some property owners have installed systems of up to 10 kilowatts. The table below shows the average daily production of some common grid-connected systems throughout Australia. A typical Australian house consumes around 21 kilowatt hours (kWh) per day.

A 5kW Bradford Solar ChargePack with Tesla Powerwall 2 is capable of producing 22kWh of solar energy and storing 13.5kWh for nighttime usage. Solar panels produce more energy in summer than they do in winter.

City	2kW System (kWh)	3kW System (kWh)	5kW System (kWh)	8kW System (kWh)	10kW System (kWh)
Adelaide	8.4	12.6	21.0	33.6	42.0
Brisbane	8.4	12.6	21.0	33.6	42.0
Canberra	8.6	12.9	21.5	34.4	43.0
Hobart	7.0	10.5	17.5	28.0	35.0
Melbourne	7.2	10.8	18.0	28.8	36.0
Perth	8.8	13.2	22.0	35.2	44.0
Sydney	7.8	11.7	19.5	31.2	39.0

^Assumptions: Solar panels produce more energy in summer than they do in winter. Actual system performance may vary due to a wide range of external factors outside CSR’s control. Any performance, saving or payback estimations mentioned by CSR are estimate only.