Equipment included in a solar panel system

Equipment included in a solar panel system

Solar PV systems have four main components:

1. Solar photovoltaic panels or solar panels
2. Inverters
3. Racking and mounting systems
4. Performance monitoring systems

1.  Solar panels

Solar panels collect and convert the sun’s energy into electricity. They are a key component of a solar panel system. Most commonly available panels today are either:

• Poly-crystalline solar panels, or
• Mono-crystalline solar panels

The key difference between poly and mono crystalline panels are their efficiency — i.e., how much electricity they produce — and their cost. The more efficient panels tend to cost more. Typically, mono-crystalline panels are more efficient and thus more expensive than poly-crystalline panels.

2.  Inverters

The cells in your solar panels collect the sun’s energy and convert it into direct current (DC) electricity. Most homes and businesses, however, use alternating current (AC). To change the DC current from your panels into usable AC current, it is passed through a device called an Inverter. The resulting electricity can be used by you or fed back into the power grid.

There are three basic approaches to solar inverters:

• String or Centralized inverter: If your system uses a string inverter, a single inverter is used to connect your entire array (or set) of solar panels to your electrical panel. String inverters tend to be cheaper than microinverters. One drawback of string inverters is that if one of the panels stops producing electricity—even if its because of shading of panels, it can bring down the performance of the whole system.
• Microinverters: With microinverters, there is a microinverter installed at each solar panel. This allows each panel to maximize production. Because of this, microinverters are preferable in situations where one or more of your panels may be shaded at different times of day or if some panels are installed facing different directions or pitch angles. The cost of microinverters tends to be higher than string inverters.
• Power optimizers: Systems that use power optimizers are a hybrid of microinverter and string inverter systems. Like microinverters, power optimizers are installed at each panel. However, instead of converting the DC electricity from the solar panels into AC electricity, the optimizers 'condition' the DC electricity before sending it to a central inverter. Like microinverters, they perform well when one or more panels may be shaded or if panels are installed facing different directions. Power optimizer systems tend to cost more than string inverter systems, but less than microinverter systems.
• https://www.energysage.com/solar/101/about-solar-panels