I am working on a project and I have to build a house with solar panels. My teacher asked me how would I get solar energy if it is rainy or cloudy? I looked it up but didn't understand. Please help me!!
Well you will not be able to produce any new electricity during cloudy or rainy times,your whole system has to be connected to a group of batteries to store the power you do make when the sun is shining.That is the power you will have to run on until the sun shines again.The more batteries you have storing power the longer you can go between recharges.
Being totally honest, the way that most houses connect solar today is alongside their normal power from the power company. If the panels produce more than the house can use, the power company buys the excess electricity. At night, or any time the house needs to draw more than the panels are putting out (including rainy days), power is simply bought from the power company the old way. Between the buying and selling, a house's electric bill for the year could be low, zero, or even negative. The other alternative, useful where there is no power company, is to have batteries. These batteries are very similar to car batteries. During sunny days, the batteries are charged, and when there isn't sun, power is drawn from the batteries. This is inefficient and expensive compared to just using the power company, so people generally only do it if they have to.
Solar panels convert light energy into electrical energy with the photovoltaic process. They work best when perpendicular to the incoming sunlight and with no clouds in bright sunlight. They will work at reduced efficiency if there are clouds or rain, but as long as its not dark, they will still produce some electricity. That is one of the real problems with solar energy, as we expect to have electricity available on demand, regardless of day/night cycles and atmospheric conditions. Storing electricity is very inefficient, so we need hydro, nuclear,or fossil fuel energy to provide firm on demand energy as a base load.
