Recently, more and more people have turned to solar panel technology to help to power their homes. While many climate activists have been arguing for the advent of this technology for several decades, it is officially becoming a common thing, as Americans look to conserve more and more energy in an attempt to possibly avert some of the possible damaging effects of climate change.
While most solar panel technologies work with the utility companies (solar panel technology for the average citizen still requires being attached to the utility grid) by only providing some of the power needed for a home, and the power that those panels provide will differ by the season – the brief days of a Montana winter for instance. Solar panels do relieve the stress on the utility grid at the peak time of day. For instance, most businesses have everything running throughout the day, and these times coincide with the times of the greatest amount of sunlight, so the solar panels are able to output the most energy at these times, relieving the stress on utility companies who have to use supplemental systems to account for the great energy usage.
Everyone has seen a home or a business with solar panels in a grid pattern over the roof, but not everyone knows how those panels work for the home and or business it is attached to. The panels are made up of cells called Phtovoltaic cells, or PV cells for short. These cells convert the sun’s rays into electricity. The only downfall to solar panel technology is that if there are numerous cloudy days the panels cannot output a lot of energy. Cold weather has very little impact on solar panels, so this is a benefit for us here in Montana where the temps can stay very low for days on end. It is important for solar power technology that the panels face a southerly direction, because south allows the most hours of sunlight throughout the day. There are some solar panel arrays that even have sunlight tracking equipment installed so that the panels are rarely ever facing away from the direct light of the sun.