Due the growing concern about environmental problems, ever more people switch to alternative sources of energy that would no less or no harm to our planet. That is why the popularity of solar panels as a source of electricity has been on the rise during recent years. However, since the technology is not widely spread yet, there are still a lot of questions about solar panels that remain unanswered for many. That is why, if you have ever asked yourself whether solar panels can work at night or on cloudy days, you are not the only one. In this blog, we will try to make things clear.

As it is clear from the name, solar panels require sunlight to be able to generate electricity, which means that they cannot produce anything in the dark. However, the confusion arises from the concept of solar storage, which presupposes that accumulated energy can be used at night. For this purpose, net metering and solar-plus-storage technology are used. They feed energy back to the grid when there is excess of power. Through connection to a battery or the electric grid, they allow solar panels  to access electricity overnight when active production is impossible. So, due to grid connections and solar energy storage, one can claim that such panels are a sustainable energy solution.

As far as cloudy days are concerned, the simplest answer is that solar panels continue working – however, it is hardly a surprise that they cannot maintain the same performance level as they do on sunny days. Depending on the panel, it will typically produce 10-30% of their normal output. However, clouds can also result in better panel performance because