How Solar Works

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Turning sunlight into hot showers and AC power.

How Solar Works

There are two types of solar panel available today, each with a specific purpose:

Solar Photovoltaic: for converting solar energy into electricity
Solar Thermal: for converting solar energy into heat

Below is how these two technologies have allowed us to harness the renewable energy of the sun and use it to sustainably power and heat our homes, commercial spaces and much more.

Find out more about Solar Photovoltaic
Find out more about Solar Thermal

How solar photovoltaic works

PV Uses a network of solar cells, made of silicon, which are linked together to form a panel

Panels can be sized or linked together to meet specific energy requirements

When sunlight shines on the panels an electrical field is created across the cells

This allows an electrical current to flow through the layers of cells

The greater the intensity of light, the greater the flow of electricity

Animation showing how sunlight interacts with Photovoltaic panels

Animation showing how an inverter converts DC current from a solar PV panel to AC mains current

The result is Direct Current (DC) electricity, which is passed to an 'inverter'

The inverter changes the DC into Alternating Current (AC) electricity

AC is what we use everyday as mains electricity

The inverter then supplies this usable AC power to us through the fuse board

If the energy created is less than required the remainder is drawn from the national grid, helping to keep your energy bills low

If the energy created is more than required it could be exported to the national grid, potentially earning you incentive payments (see our financial incentives section)

Alternatively, battery storage systems can be used to store excess energy for use at a later time, rather than releasing it to the national grid

Animation showing how solar generated electricity can be used at home or put back into the grid

How solar thermal works

Solar thermal heating systems harvest solar energy by absorbing the suns energy through a 'collector' and converting it to heat.

Collectors come in a wide range, and each have different purposes and temperatures.

AES Solar manufacture 'flat plate collectors', consisting of a metal 'absorber' housed in an insulated box with a transparent cover to allow sunlight to enter.

Absorbers are usually made with a highly conductive metal with a special coating to maximise the light absorbed and converted to heat.

Solar Thermal showing how the sun interacts with our thermal panels

Animation showing how our solar thermal system heats up water in a traditional hot water cylinder

Heat collected by the panel is transferred to a specialised heat transfer fluid

The heat transfer fluid circulates within a solar loop linking the solar collector to a ‘heat exchanger’, typically a coil in a cylinder

As cold water enters the cylinder it absorbs heat from the copper coil and exits as hot water, ready for central heating, washing, bathing etc.

Animation showing how our solar thermal system outputs hot water for your water systems

Installation

Most panels come with a 25-year warranty and are built to withstand harsh weather conditions with minimum degradation. We’ll ensure that you get the best value and are fully informed of the expected lifespan and performance of your system.

Solar panels are not all the same. We aim to make your installation look as pleasing as possible by considering frame colour, panel colour, in-roof or on-roof mounting and a range of options for different roof types.

We complete most domestic installations within a day, maximising your roof space to get the most out of your system. To do this we use versatile panels and unique fixing methods in order to make installation as pain free as we can.