Solar Terminology and Wording

I’m going to back date a few of my blog posts to try and get up to present day. As already mentioned I should have started this a long time ago. So for a little bit of the boring part, although I can’t recall everything or when I went through it to get here, I thought that I would start by giving some explanations and definitions to some of the terms that I have picked up over my journey or at least an explanation to how I personally have understood some of the solar panel installation terminologies. If I have got it wrong, then I stand corrected – please feel free to advise accordingly. For research, there are plenty of Solar and Renewable Energy Associations around including the Renewable Energy Association and the Energy Saving Trust.

Solar Photovoltaic Panel (PV) or correctly named modules. These are the panels that we are seeing popping-up on rooftops around the country generating the electrical energy from the sun’s rays. They convert solar radiation into DC electricity.

Solar Cell is the electric producing part of the the solar panel. These are collectively grouped together to form a module all held within the frame (the solar panel).

Direct Current Electricity (DC) similar to the electricity released by batteries. This flows from the solar array via the electrical cable to the inverter.

Alternating Current Electricity (AC) Is the form in which electric power arrives at our homes from the GRID.

Inverter The inverter converts the DC electricity produced by the solar panels into AC electricity.

Solar Array The group of electricity generating panels which make up the system are called a solar array.

Generation Meter When electricity is being generated from your PV system it gets recorded by the generation meter and used for feed in tariff payments.

FIT (Feed in Tariff) A government scheme designed to accelerate and encourage the investment in renewable energy technologies. A payment is made for each unit (kWh) of electricity produced by a solar PV system

kWh (Kilowatt/hour) The energy produced by the PV array is measured in kWh.