November 2014

Effect of Temperature on Solar Panel power generation

By |2018-01-17T18:20:56+05:30November 6th, 2014|

It’s a common misconception that the solar panels generate more energy with higher temperatures and less energy with lower temperatures. So the assumption is that we have more power generated in places like Chennai than in Bangalore or for that matter in Himachal Pradesh. But in reality,   solar cells, like in all semiconductors  are [...]

Grid-tie inverters – How do they operate?

By |2017-11-20T16:21:55+05:30November 5th, 2014|

Inverters take DC power and invert it to AC power so it can be fed into the electric utility company grid. The grid tie inverter must synchronize its frequency with that of the grid (e.g. 50 or 60 Hz)  and limit the voltage to no higher than the grid voltage. A high-quality modern Grid Tie inverter [...]

What is a on-grid solar system?

By |2018-01-17T18:20:56+05:30November 3rd, 2014|

Electricity generated by a Solar Photo Voltaic (PV) system can be directly consumed by the load itself or can be  stored in a battery bank or can be sent out to the grid. A solar PV system in which the electricity generated can be sent to the grid is called an on-grid system. This type of [...]

September 2014

What is “Maximum Power”?

By |2018-01-17T18:20:57+05:30September 9th, 2014|

Let's take an energy source like a battery or a PV module. When you draw no current from it, the voltage at it's terminals is called it's open-circuit voltage. When you connect any electrical load to it, current flows through it and it's terminal voltage decreases because some power is  wasted by it's internal resistance. [...]

Charge Controllers protect our batteries.

By |2018-01-17T18:20:57+05:30September 8th, 2014|

Our batteries are expensive components of our off-grid solar installations. So it is a good idea to protect them from over-charging and deep discharge. To do this we use charge controllers. Charge controllers sense the voltage on the battery. If it is lower than a given threshold then they disconnect the battery from the load. [...]