1. What is Solar PV?A Guide to SolarEnergy

2. You might have heard of this term, anyone who is interested in solar panels orrenewable energy will have stumbled across it.But what does it actually mean? 3. What Does Solar PV Mean?PV stands for photovoltaic (literally, photo = light & voltaic = pertaining toelectricity) so a solar photovoltaic system is a means of converting light fromthe sun into electricity.Phew! Glad weve got that covered. So solarPV refers to a solar panel setup to generateclean electricity from the sun but how dothey work? 4. How Do Solar Panels Work?If you look at a solar panel, you will notice small individual squares (knownas photovoltaic cells) which are all connected up into a frame that makes upthe solar panel as a whole this group of cells is referred to as a module.Inside each cell is a semiconductor commonly silicon which allows lightto be converted into electricity. 5. The light from the sun contains many photons, the most basic form oflight, which are then absorbed by the semiconductor. This creates electrons (aform of electricity) within the panel.As an electrical charge, the electrons want to escape and release their charge.As a solar panel provides an electrical field, the electrons can be filtered out toan external system or device that can use the energy flow being created suchas a houses electrical grid, an individual device (such as a calculator) or abattery for storing power. 6. Sounds great! But are there any complications?The Disadvantages of Solar EnergyStoring energy is currently quite difficult, although technologies are advancingall the time, and so using a solar panel for a battery is less efficient than usingit live to supplement the electricity used in a house. 7. The Advantages of Solar EnergyA solar PV system could power the electricity consuming products in ahome, when the system is producing electricity i.e. during the day.It will either supplement your electricity use, in which case it would provideyou with all the energy it is creating and the rest of your required power willcome off a main grid, or it will power all of the appliances and send the extraenergy to the national grid for use elsewhere. This is usually only the case inlarger installations such as solar panels for business. 8. Ideally, you would want a big enough PV system to take care of all yourelectricity needs, charge batteries for when a system is not working (at night)and divert any extra power to the national electricity grid which thengenerates an additional income. 9. The likelihood is that you would only be able to realistically supplement your powerusage during the day, and perhaps power a small battery, which would then allow youto enjoy reduced electricity bills.There are a few things you can do to make sure you get the most out of your panelsthough. Making sure you have the best angle of inclination on your panels, so that theyface the sun, is important so in the northern hemisphere solar panels should facesouth. Dont worry about this though, good solar panel contractors will advise you onthe best placement of your pv panels during the installation process. 10. Weather plays a role too; energy production will decrease in cloudy weatherfor example, so using an area that is shaded at some point during the day is nota good idea.Apart from that, just using less electricity will mean you get a lot more fromyour panels when you need it. There are many monitoring systems that can beinstalled during a solar PV setup to show you how much you are actually usingand generating so you can cut back when youre not generating much, anduse more when youre generating a lot. 11. All in all technologies are increasing in efficiency and decreasing inprice, which makes solar PV a more economically viable choice forconsumers.Well, hopefully youve got a better idea of what is solar PV? and alittle insight into how it works.Thanks for watching!