Solar electricity has huge benefits for homeowners. Adding solar panels to your home can improve your quality of life by freeing up more money in your budget. The Oregon coast can benefit from solar energy generation by decreasing our reliance on regional energy sources. By producing energy here on the coast, we increase our resiliency in the case of a natural disaster.
Solar energy is harnessed by solar panels made up of photovoltaic (PV) cells. The PV cells take sunlight and turn it into direct current, or DC electricity. The electricity then travels to an inverter which turns the direct current into alternating current (AC) electricity, which is the kind we use in our homes. The inverter feeds electricity into your existing breaker box and whatever you don’t use is fed back into the grid. This “net metering” process (essentially your meter running backwards) provides credits to offset the cost of electricity you use from the grid.