The usage of solar energy are becoming popular to save money on electric bills. The group of solar cells connected in series or in parallel manner is known as solar panel. The solar panel voltage is always greater than 12V.

Solar cell

Solar cell is made up of a semi conductor material such as polycrystalline silicon or monocrystalline silicon. The voltage of the solar cell is less than 5V.

Charge controller

Charge controller is also known as regulator. There are different types of regulators available.

The size of these regulators varies from 5Amps to 80Amps. The most commenly used type of regulators for smaller loads are normal and straight forward regulators. Maximum Power Point Tracking(MPPT) regulator is used for greater loads.

Batteries

Ordinary car batteries are not suitable for solar power system, because these batteries have only short span of life. Generally marine deep cycle batteries are used for smaller system while special high amperage solar batteries are used for larger system.

Inverter

Inverters are used to convert DC voltage into AC voltage. Normally the electricity produced by the solar panel will be in DC voltage. These DC powers can be used only to operate small electronic devices such as handheld games, mobile, etc. But the high power devices such as fridges and microwave oven cannot be operated in DC power. Inverters are used to convert DC voltage into Ac voltage. Both the regulator and inverter should be placed near the battery bank.

Other components

In addition to the components mentioned above, there are few more components necessary to build a solar power system. Cabling, switches and connection boxes are also the essential components. The quantities of the components depends upon the size of the system, number of connections and the distance between the components.