Solar panels require sunlight to generate electricity, so the simple answer is no, they don’t work at night. Most of the confusion about solar panels working at night is related to solar storage and using a backup power supply during the night.
We’ll go over how solar panels are still worth the investment through net metering and backup energy usage to power your home while it’s dark.
DO SOLAR PANELS PRODUCE ENERGY AT NIGHT?
Similar to how solar panels won’t operate at peak efficiency during cloudy conditions, they can’t produce energy at night when there isn’t any sunlight.
Your panels work hard all day, even through sunset, to ensure you have enough electricity to power your entire home all the time. But the photovoltaic (PV) cells in your panels need sunlight to generate that power.
So once the sun goes down, it’s time to take advantage of any excess energy that your system produced during the day. This energy is accessible through your home backup power in a solar battery. If you don’t have a battery, you can tap into your solar credits collected from net metering to source energy during dark hours.
Questions?
Please don’t hesitate to call us at (559) 549-5638
