How Solar Powers Your Home
Your home will use electricity generated by your panels while the sun is shining. Any extra electricity is sold back to the utility, which you receive in the form of "net metering credits". You will use those credits to power your house at night when your panels are not generating electricity.
1
Panels/Array
These are your solar panels. Typically mounted on your roof, or in your yard (ground mount), they generate raw electricity which is called "DC" current.
3
AC Power Distribution
The AC current is then directed to each breaker, supplying electricity to each part of your house. This is what powers each and every one of your devices in the home.
2
Inverter
The inverter takes the raw electricity (DC current), and converts it into usable electricity (AC current).
4
Electric Meter & Grid
Electricity going into your house from the "grid" (bought electricity), and leaving your house into the grid (sold electricity) is precisely monitored by the electric meter. The grid can always receive OR deliver power.
Coal is a major problem
There are almost 8,000 operational Power Plants in U.S. alone. The centralized power system is DIRTY. A large percentage of global carbon emissions come from coal. Coal is the largest source of carbon pollution on the planet. We dig up coal from deep in the earth, and drive it to power plants. Then, only about 30% of that energy is extracted into electricity!
In 2020, about 4,007 billion kilowatt hours (kWh), or about 4 trillion kWh, of electricity were generated at utility-scale electricity generation facilities in the United States. About 61% of this electricity generation was from fossil fuels—coal, natural gas, petroleum, and other gases.
The good news: solar is making a difference
In 2020, U.S. coal production decreased 24.2% to 535.4 million short tons (MMst) from the 2019 level, while the number of producing mines also decreased to 552 mines from 669 mines in 2019.
Local Energy vs. Distributed Energy
Electricity that is generated at a power plant is already extremely inefficient, with about a 60% loss of energy.
But then it has to be converted multiple times and sent long distances in order to reach your house. This process causes a loss of about 5 percent of all the electricity generated due to transmission and distribution inefficiencies - enough to power all seven Central American countries for four years.
Solar gives us a perfect solution - generate the electricity precisely where it is needed!