What is Solar PV?
Solar photovoltaic (PV) is a technology that has been around since the 70’s and converts the sun’s rays into usable electricity for your home or business. You save money by generating your own electricity from the sun.
Solar Panels
Large solar panels are put onto your roof at home or at your business that takes the sun’s rays and converts them into direct-current (DC) electricity.
Inverter
These panels connect up with an inverter that converts the direct current (DC) into usable alternating current (AC), just like the AC adaptors we use to charge our cell phones, TVs or computers, which we can use to power your home or business.
Battery
When you add batteries for energy storage, you will be able to have power even when the grid is down. Alternatively, feed your stored electricity back into the grid to sell to your utility by a process called Net Metering or becoming a Virtual Power Plant (VPP).
Utility Grid
The solar system’s inverter connects to your electrical network at your home or business and integrates with your utility’s grid. You get the best of both worlds – electricity from your solar system when the sun is shining and from the grid when you need it, which means you always have electricity.
What kind of solar PV systems can you get?
As the technology has grown, a variety of different format to harness solar energy have blossomed onto the market.
Storage Only
The most affordable system to achieve energy independence. The grid charges the batteries, which store electricity to use when grid power is not available. Power is transferred automatically when the grid goes down.
The disadvantage is that grid power is needed to charge the batteries. Hohm’s ‘future proof’ storage solution enables you to add solar panels to your system if required.
Grid-tied solar
Solar system which combines the best of both a grid-tied and off-grid system. Here, you are still connected to the network and have batteries for backup energy storage.
When the grid goes down for whatever reason, you can run your appliances that are connected to the inverter for a period of time. This depends on how many batteries are connected.
This solution also helps you save on your electricity bills.
Hybrid Solar System
Solar system which includes batteries for backup power. Here, kilowatt hours (kWhs) generated from your solar system are stored in large battery banks. What makes this setup so unique is that you act like an island and are completely removed from the grid.
It doesn’t matter if the grid is up, you run a system that is completely independent. This usually comes with a large upfront cost due to the number of batteries needed as well solar PV panels.
Off-grid solar
Solar system which includes batteries for backup power. Here, kilowatt hours (kWhs) generated from your solar system are stored in large battery banks. What makes this setup so unique is that you act like an island and are completely removed from the grid.
It doesn’t matter if the grid is up, you run a system that is completely independent. This usually comes with a large upfront cost due to the number of batteries needed as well solar PV panels.
