Solar Panels In Maine

When properly installed, especially in hurricane-prone areas like Florida, the strict installation regulations ensure that solar panel systems are as safe as the rest of your home and roof. In many circumstances, the added reinforcement actually helps the home and roof fare better in a hurricane than a home without solar panels. Of course, as in any natural disaster, anything can happen and there is no way to guarantee your solar panels won’t sustain damage or be ripped up along with the roof.

Flexible solar panels are limited in the materials they can be made from. Rigid solar panels can be made with more efficient components, and are generally thicker, which means more material to interact with solar rays and produce electricity.

Yes! Properly installed solar panels are much more resilient than people imagine. Just because they’re thin and reflective like glass doesn’t mean they are fragile. In fact, many solar panel owners report extensive damage to the rest of their home, cars, and property, while their solar panel system stays undamaged. The angle and direction the panels are installed facing make the biggest difference regarding their vulnerability during a hail storm, and like the rest of your property they can be insured against hail damage.

When the photons in sunlight hit the atoms in your solar panel, electrons can be kicked loose. Solar panels are designed to collect these disassociated electrons and store them in a battery to power your home and electronics.

Solar panels are made from a wide range of materials and chemicals that each contribute to the conversion of solar light into usable electricity. The main component in any solar panel are crystalline silicon wafers. These wafers are semiconductors that are able to generate electricity from sunlight in a process known as the photovoltaic effect.  In addition, solar panels use glass, wires, metal components, and batteries in order to fully convert and store the sunlight as usable energy for your home.

Modern solar panels are usually about 15% to 18% efficient. This means that 15% to 18% of the sunlight they absorb gets turned into energy. The remaining sunlight is lost as heat, warming the solar panel casing. That being said there are a number of factors that can impact the overall efficiency such as the solar panel age, materials they’re made with, and average sun exposure.