On Grid

On grid solar is usually much cheaper than off grid solar due to the lack of a battery. Solar panels will generate power (DC) and it will be quickly converted (to AC) for supply to the location (home/business/community). Excess generated power is supplied to the electric company for which many companies pay to receive from consumer supply. There are a few options for converting (inverting) power, the two main types are with a large inverter or with several micro inverters. The large inverters will have all of the power from the panels into a single power inverter, which then supplies power to the location and then grid. This is more of a traditional approach than the more modern micro inverters. The micro inverters will connect to one (or a few) panels and immediately convert the power to AC, then supply the location. The upside for micro inverters is that they tend to be more efficient and they send AC power much sooner, so you can usually save on having the bigger DC cables. In addition, many micro inverters now also offer real time monitoring and production details. One key piece of information that many people overlook for this configuration is that on grid systems do not function during a power outage. This is to protect line workers that are trying restore power from the grid. The term for this protection is "islanding protection" and it means that the inverters will shut off when there is no connectivity from the grid.