Do Solar Panel Work on Night or Cloudy Days?

Solar energy remains one of the most sustainable forms of energy. With solar panels, we can turn the sun’s free energy into electricity that power our homes. However, many people don’t know what exactly solar energy is.

Despite its popularity, solar energy is still surrounded by myths—especially the false belief that solar panels only works under bright sunshine. It’s not fully correct, solar panels don’t produce electricity at night, but they do still technically work.

Even on cloudy days, solar panels continue to produce electricity. Cloudy days slightly recue your solar panel’s efficiency, the difference is relatively small.

In this blog post you’ll know do solar panels work at night or cloudy days and how their performance drop at night.

How Solar Panels Work at Night

Solar panels produce electricity into sunlight. So, if there’s no sun, there’s simply no electricity, right?

Yes, that’s right. Solar panel generate electricity at sunrise and stop when it sets. Solar panels operate at peak efficiency when sunlight hits them directly, generally in the middle of the day, but this change based on weather and panel direction.

Can solar panels work at night? Technically, solar panels can generate electricity at night with external lighting, but the energy output wouldn’t exceed the input.

Solar panel can produce small amount of electricity with ambient light source like, moon, street lamps or city lights. Further, solar panel are capable of generating electricity from full moonlight, but the process is 350,000 times slower than with sunlight.

Solar panels always working, the real question is how much electricity comes out of it in high and low light? James Fenton, director of the Florida Solar Energy Center (Institute of the University of Central Florida) told that at night you will get close to zero electricity.

However, if you buy a solar panel and records its output through your cell phone, you’ll notice that out will be close to zero at night.

Do Solar Panels Work on Cloudy Days?

Solar panels produce electricity whenever they absorb sunlight. Here’s how they perform under cloudy conditions.

Cloud Weather

Even in cloudy weather, rain or other times of indirect sunlight, solar panels continue to produce electricity but reduce efficiency. Solar panels perform best under direct sunlight and produce less electricity when it’s cloudy. If your area experience many overcast days, your solar panels are unlikely to perform optimally each day.

Fenton said, on real cloudy days you’ll get half of the electricity as your solar panel produce on sunny day. If you’re thinking rain might be a problem, no need to worry, solar panels are waterproof and rain can even help by washing off dirt, boost their efficiency.

How do I Get Power at Night if I have Solar Panels?

You can still power your home with solar energy at night if you have a battery. However, solar batteries can be costly and might not be a good fit for your solar setup. Solar batteries, depending on their type and capacity, their price might be equal to your solar panels.

Another option is to keep your connection to the power grid, so you’ll still have electricity during the nighttime or when solar electricity is low. With net metering, you can earn money for the surplus solar energy you produce.

Solar Battery Storage

Solar panels produce more energy than needed during the day, allowing the extra to be stored. A solar battery stores the additional power generated during the daylight hours.

At night, when your solar panels are inactive, the energy stored in the battery system ensures your home stays powered. With this setup, some homes can even run off-grid, meaning they don’t rely on any utility services.

Adding solar batteries to your system can be quite expensive. In Pakistan, a lithium battery will cost you about Rs 260,000.

Net Metering

You don’t need storage to make use of your extra solar energy at night. How? The solutions in net metering. With net metering, no physical energy storage system is required at home. The additional electricity produced by your solar panels during the day goes directly to the utility grid. You’ll get credits for this power and accumulate in your utility account.

At night, whenever you use electricity from the grid, used electricity unit cost will manage with your extra solar electricity production.

How to Get Started with Solar Panels?

Want to install solar panels at home, industry or office? Start by finding a reliable solar installer nearby. Shahid System is providing a complete setup of solar panel installation and maintenance in Karachi, Pakistan.

A reputable solar installer like Shahid System will perform an on-site consultation to determine your home’s solar potential. Our Expert team will assess your roof’s condition and your home’s energy consumption to suggest the most suitable solar system size.

Switching to solar energy is a significant investment, so take your time and get free quote from us. We are just a call away.