Solar Lingo 101
So, you’re interested in going solar but getting bogged down with all the industry lingo? No worries, we’re here to help! From battery cells and light trapping to panels, regulators, and more, there are plenty of terms to familiarize yourself with.
Luckily, The U.S. Department of Energy has put together a very helpful solar energy glossary which contains definitions for technical terms related to solar energy, electricity, and power generation by technologies like photovoltaics (PV) and concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP).
We’ve included some of the most-used terms and definitions below for your convenience. These are terms you may have seen on our website, across our blogs, and in any other solar literature you’ve come across.
Battery Cell: The simplest operating unit in a storage battery. It consists of one or more positive electrodes or plates, an electrolyte that permits ionic conduction, one or more negative electrodes or plates, separators between plates of opposite polarity, and a container for all the above.
Charge Rate: The current applied to a cell or battery to restore its available capacity. This rate is commonly normalized by a charge control device with respect to the rated capacity of the cell or battery.
Converter: A unit that converts a direct current (dc) voltage to another dc voltage.
Distributed Energy Resources (DER): A variety of small, modular power-generating technologies that can be combined with energy management and storage systems and used to improve the operation of the electricity delivery system, whether or not those technologies are connected to an electricity grid.
Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE): The cost of energy of a solar system that is based on the system's installed price, its total lifetime cost, and its lifetime electricity production.
Rated Battery Capacity: The term used by battery manufacturers to indicate the maximum amount of energy that can be withdrawn from a battery under specified discharge rate and temperature.
Thermophotovoltaic Cell (TPV): A device where sunlight concentrated onto a absorber heats it to a high temperature, and the thermal radiation emitted by the absorber is used as the energy source for a photovoltaic cell that is designed to maximize conversion efficiency at the wavelength of the thermal radiation.
Utility-interactive Inverter: An inverter that can function only when tied to the utility grid, and uses the prevailing line-voltage frequency on the utility line as a control parameter to ensure that the photovoltaic system's output is fully synchronized with the utility power.
Still unsure about a particular term you’ve come across? Don’t hesitate to reach out to our team today. We’re here to make solar more approachable and attainable for all households. Let’s get started on your solar journey today!
