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Grid-Tied Solar System: What is it and How Does it Work?

Grid-tie systems generate electricity, sending this energy back to your utility company’s power grid. In effect, this means the utility company will be paying you to produce energy for them, since the energy you produce counts against the energy your home or business uses.

gtdiagram

Your solar panels will produce DC (Direct Current) electricity. This electricity will be run through an inverter to produce AC (Alternating Current) electricity. This energy is then run into your AC power panel, which feeds energy back to your utility companies power grid. If your solar power array produced enough electricity, your utility meter would begin to run backward!

The main components of an Grid-Tie system are:

Solar Panels You’ll need solar panels to collect the solar energy and convert this to DC power. The number and type of solar panels will determine how much energy you can produce, as will your geographic location.
Combiner Box This box gathers all of the Solar Panel connections.
DC Breaker Box Your array’s breaker safely shuts down your solar power system at a moment’s notice, allowing for safe maintenance, repair, and inspection.
Inverter Inverters take Direct Current power and convert it to household (AC) power.
Grid Disconnect A grid disconnect allows you to stop the flow of electricity between your solar power system and your electrical system. This provides for the safe maintenance of electrical and utility systems.