Solar photovoltaic technology, commonly known as solar PV when it comes to residential solar systems, has been central to bringing solar energy to the suburbs. But what does PV mean, how does it work and what place does it have in a home solar energy system? In this easy guide, we’ll take a high-level look at solar PV technology.
What is PV?
The simplest explanation of the meaning of ‘photovoltaic’ (PV) is that it means that something is able to produce voltage or an electrical current from light.
The University of Calgary’s Energy Education Encyclopedia explains that light is made up of little bundles of energy called photons. When a suitable semiconducting material is exposed to light, the energy from the photons are transferred to the electrons in the semiconducting material. (If you want to get really deep, electrons are particles that help form the nucleus of an atom, and an atom is a type of matter that makes up everything in the universe except energy! You can read more about atoms at livescience.com.
When the electrons in the semiconducting material receive the energy transferred from the photon, they start to move through the material in a particular direction, which creates an electrical current. This is how the photovoltaic effect got its name; ‘photo’ from photons and ‘voltaic’ from voltage a.k.a. electricity.
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What is PV in solar energy?
In the solar realm, the PV effect is most often created by using a semiconductor material such as crystalline silicon to cause the conversion of light into electricity. Solar panels contain many cells called PV cells. These cells typically contain silicon and are connected up to many other cells, which are housed in a protective case of glass or plastic. Sunlight hits the PV cells in the panel and is converted to electricity. The large number of cells allow the solar panels on your roof to convert sufficient sunlight into a useful amount of electricity to power your home.
There are other types of PV technology used in solar, of which the best known is thin-film PV. Thin-film PV uses panels that are coated in a semiconducting material such as amorphous silicone or cadmium telluride.
Thin-film panels are lighter, and tend to be cheaper than their cell-containing counterparts but are also less efficient at converting sunlight into electricity than crystalline silicon panels, so are so far mostly used in commercial solar projects. Ecovoice, however, reckons the greater flexibility of thin-film PV technology and thin-film panels themselves will lead to their wider use in the future. For example, the outdoor equipment brand Patagonia has used thin-film PV technology to turn windows at its California HQ into solar panels!
What is solar PV technology?
While solar panels are the part that harnesses PV technology to produce solar energy, there are other vital pieces of your home solar energy system required to turn that energy into usable electricity. The pieces of a solar system are:
Solar Panels: As we explained earlier, solar panels turn sunlight into electricity. There are several types of silicon technology commonly used in PV cells; monocrystalline, polycrystalline and amorphous silicon are the most common. The electricity the panels produce is in the form of a direct current (DC).
Inverter: An inverter is a device that converts the DC electricity from panels into alternating current (AC) electricity that can be used to power your home appliances.
Battery: A solar battery isn’t an essential part of a solar system but they are increasingly used by householders to store excess electricity produced by their solar panels for use at a time when the sun isn’t shining.
Solar PV technology can be used in both grid-connected and off-grid situations.
Grid-connected vs off-grid solar systems
Grid-connected systems are connected to the electricity grid, allowing homeowners to send the excess electricity their panels generate back to the grid and receive credits or payments in the form of a feed-in tariff in return. Being connected to the grid also means bill-payers can draw electricity from the grid at times when their panels aren’t generating electricity.
Stand-alone PV systems, also known as off-grid systems, operate autonomously from the main electricity grid. They’re most common in remote areas where connecting to the electricity grid is impractical or too expensive. Off-grid solar PV systems are also used by people who want to be entirely energy self-sufficient, often because they want to avoid using fossil fuels. It’s common to include a solar battery in an off-grid system to make the lack of grid power on demand more liveable.
Compare solar electricity plans in your state
Here are some of the cheapest solar-specific deals from the retailers on our database. These costs are based on the Ausgrid network in Sydney but prices will vary depending on your circumstances. We show one product per retailer, listed in order of lowest price first. Annual price estimates assume general energy usage of 3911kWh/year for a residential customer on a single rate tariff. Price estimates exclude solar feed-in tariff credits. These are products from referral partners†. Our database may not cover all deals in your area, and please check retailer websites for up to date information.
Here are some of the cheapest solar-specific deals from the retailers on our database. These costs are based on the Citipower network in Melbourne but prices will vary depending on your circumstances. We show one product per retailer, listed in order of lowest price first. Annual price estimates assume general energy usage of 4000kWh/year for a residential customer on a single rate tariff. Price estimates exclude solar feed-in tariff credits. These are products from referral partners†. Our database may not cover all deals in your area, and please check retailer websites for up to date information.
Here are some of the cheapest solar-specific deals from the retailers on our database. These costs are based on the Energex network in Brisbane but prices will vary depending on your circumstances. We show one product per retailer, listed in order of lowest price first. Annual price estimates assume general energy usage of 4613kWh/year for a residential customer on a single rate tariff. Price estimates exclude solar feed-in tariff credits. These are products from referral partners†. Our database may not cover all deals in your area, and please check retailer websites for up to date information.
Here are some of the cheapest solar-specific deals from the retailers on our database. These costs are based on SA Power network in Adelaide but prices will vary depending on your circumstances. We show one product per retailer, listed in order of lowest price first. Annual price estimates assume general energy usage of 4011kWh/year for a residential customer on a single rate tariff. Price estimates exclude solar feed-in tariff credits. These are products from referral partners†. Our database may not cover all deals in your area, and please check retailer websites for up to date information.
How important is solar PV technology?
Solar PV technology has allowed everyday people to make use of a free source of renewable energy – literally, sunlight – to be more sustainable in terms of their electricity use and, ideally, also lower the amount they pay for energy over the long term.
According to the International Energy Agency, in 2022 solar energy accounted for 4.5% of total global electricity generation and would continue to grow as solar system design innovations delivered new efficiencies and governments supported solar take-up with their energy policies.
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