Do Solar Panels Work at Night?

Solar At Night

The simple answer is no, solar panels do not work at night. Panels require sunlight in order to generate energy. The confusion regarding solar panels at night is simply a matter of the solar storage that stores your panels energy.

Your panels work throughout the day to generate the energy needed to power your home day and night. That means once the sun goes down your home depends on the excess energy your system produced during the sunlight hours.

Basically, once the sun goes down energy is accessed through home backup power in a solar battery. If your home does not have a solar battery paired with your system you can still access power. Energy is collected by tapping into your solar credits collected from net metering.

Solar Battery Storage Keeps the Night Bright

Solar batteries, as the name suggests, store the energy that your panels generate. This allows homeowners to access electricity when their panels aren’t generating any, like during the night or even when it’s cloudy. Energy from these batteries can be accessed any time of day, but come in handy especially when the sun sets.

These batteries store the excess energy that the panels generate that your home isn’t using. So instead of sending the excess energy to the grid, you can keep it to use on a rainy day, quite literally!

These batteries give you independence in how you use energy. Instead of having to draw energy from the grid, you can simply draw from your own battery. It’s like having your own grid to draw from!

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Net Metering Keeping You Connected

Not all solar systems have a battery that stores the excess energy that their panels are producing. Many utility providers offering a net metering program from solar power owners.

When your home isn’t using its excess energy it gets deposited into the grid. In exchange for your contribution to the grid, your electric provider will either reimburse you or offer solar credits.

These solar credits are almost like a savings account in a bank. Owners can draw on these credits during the night hours, or whenever the system is generating energy to power their homes. Many solar power owners will have an abundance of solar credits that they can use when needed.

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Batteries And Net Metering Working Together

Both Net metering and solar battery storage offer their own benefits when going solar. Batteries allow you to access stored energy whenever needed, but net metering offers great benefits to homeowners. Thankfully for solar power owners, you have to choose one or the other!

Batteries can be programmed to draw electricity from the grid if and only if the battery is completely depleted of energy. You can also program them to work together rather than have net metering as a backup to your battery storage. By using both battery storage and net metering you can not only lower your electricity bill but can also maximize your energy security.

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