How Solar Actually Works

A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Guide for Virginia Homeowners

Most explanations of solar fall into one of two camps:

• So technical they lose you

• So simplified they feel vague or salesy
  
  

This guide does neither.

Instead, think of this as a choose-your-own-adventure. You can follow the plain-language path, dive into the technical details, or bounce between both — whatever makes sense for you.

Let’s start at the beginning.

Chapter 1: Where Your Electricity Comes From (Before Solar)

The Plain-Language Path

Right now, your electricity is made somewhere else and shipped to your home.

Power plants generate electricity → it travels across long transmission lines → moves through local distribution lines → reaches your house. Every step adds cost.

You pay for:

• The electricity itself

• The wires that move it

• The infrastructure that supports it

• Long-term upgrades and policy programs
  
  

That’s why your bill isn’t just “usage × a rate.”

The Technical Path

Electricity is generated centrally, transmitted at high voltage to reduce losses, stepped down through substations, and distributed locally.

Transmission congestion, infrastructure investment, fuel volatility, and regulatory riders all influence the final cost per kWh delivered to your home.

Either way, one thing is true:

The farther electricity travels, the more expensive it becomes.

That’s where solar comes in.

Chapter 2: What Solar Changes (Without Replacing the Grid)

The Plain-Language Path

Solar doesn’t disconnect you from the grid. It simply lets your home make some of its own electricity first.

When the sun is shining:

• Your panels produce power

• Your home uses that power before pulling from the grid

• Any extra goes back onto the grid
  
  

At night or on cloudy days, the grid fills in the gap.

The Technical Path

A grid-tied solar system operates in parallel with utility infrastructure.

Onsite generation offsets real-time load, while surplus generation is exported through net metering. Grid power supplies demand when onsite generation is insufficient.

You’re still connected — you’re just smarter about where your energy comes from.

Chapter 3: How Solar Actually Works (Step by Step)

The Plain-Language Path

Here’s the simple version:

1. Sunlight hits the panels

   
   

2. Panels create electricity (DC power)

   
   

3. An inverter converts it to usable power (AC)

   
   

4. Your home uses it

   
   

5. Extra flows to the grid

   
   

6. You get credited for what you send back
   
   

That’s it.

The Technical Path

Photovoltaic cells generate direct current through electron excitation.

Inverters convert DC to AC synchronized with grid frequency. Production is monitored, load-matched, and netted against utility consumption under approved interconnection standards.

Same story. Different depth.

Chapter 4: Net Metering (The Accounting System)

The Plain-Language Path

Net metering is the scorekeeper.

Your meter tracks:

• energy pulled from the grid

• energy sent back
  
  
  

You’re billed on the difference — solar production vs. the home’s energy consumption

Each month, your utility looks at two numbers:

• how much electricity your home used from the grid, and

• how much electricity your solar system sent back to the grid.
  
  
  

If you use more electricity than your system produces, you’re billed for the difference.

If your solar system produces more electricity than you use, the excess doesn’t disappear — it becomes a credit. That credit rolls forward and can be used to offset future months when your home uses more electricity than your solar system produces (like during hotter summers or darker winter months).

This monthly “give and take” is what allows solar to work across seasons — not just on perfect sunny days.

The Technical Path: Net Metering (Expanded)

Net metering allows bi-directional energy flow between your home and the electric grid, with usage and production measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh).

During each billing cycle:

• Electricity your home pulls from the grid is recorded

• Electricity your solar system exports to the grid is recorded

• The utility calculates the net difference between the two
  
  

If consumption exceeds production, you’re billed for the net amount used.

If production exceeds consumption, excess generation is credited to your account and typically carried forward on a rolling basis, subject to approved tariffs.

These credits are then applied to future billing periods when your home needs more electricity than your system produces.

Why this matters:

Net metering is the financial backbone of residential solar. Without it, solar would only offset power in real time. With it, homeowners can bank excess production and use it later — which is why solar works not just daily, but annually.

The Big Takeaway (Works for Both Paths)

Net metering doesn’t mean you “go off the grid.”

It means your home and the grid work together — using solar when it’s available and the grid when it’s needed, with credits keeping everything balanced over time.

That balance is what turns solar from a technical upgrade into a practical energy solution.

Chapter 5: Why People Are Going Solar (The Real Reason)

This is where the adventure splits.

Path A: “I’m Staying with the Utility”

Totally fair.

But staying with the utility means:

• accepting future rate changes

• paying for infrastructure you don’t control

• absorbing fuel and policy cost adjustments
  
  

Your bill may change even when your usage doesn’t.

Path B: “I Want More Control”

This is where solar fits.

Solar lets you:

• Replace some utility electricity with self-generated power

• lock in a known cost for part of or potentially even all of your energy needs

• reduce exposure to long-term rate increases
  
  

It’s not about leaving the grid.

It’s about depending on it less.

Chapter 6: Ownership vs Leases (Why Leases Are Growing)

The Plain-Language Path

With federal solar tax credits scheduled to end on December 31, 2025, traditional ownership has become less compelling for many homeowners — accelerating the shift toward lease-based solar. A shift from focus on tax credits and long-term ownership to immediate savings, price stability, and lower upfront complexity — a tradeoff many homeowners now prefer.

Today, many homeowners choose leases because:

• they require little to no upfront cost

• maintenance is handled for you

• pricing is based on cost per kWh (just like your bill)

• performance risk stays with the provider
  
  

Leases are about energy, not equipment.

The Technical Path

Lease structures monetize incentives upstream, allowing providers to offer lower effective energy pricing without transferring asset responsibility to the homeowner. This aligns solar economics more closely with utility billing frameworks.

In short:

Leases feel familiar because they behave like electricity, not a loan.

Chapter 7: The Big Picture (Why Solar Keeps Growing)

Solar works because:

• energy costs are layered and rising

• technology is proven and reliable

• the grid wasn’t designed for one-way demand forever

• homeowners want predictability
  
  

Solar doesn’t replace the grid.

It modernizes how you interact with it.

Final Chapter: Choose What Happens Next

If you’re just learning — great.

If you want to go deeper — even better.

From here, you can:

• explore how solar systems are sized

• learn how to compare solar pricing to your bill

• understand net metering in more detail

• review a proposal you’ve already received
  
  

VirginiaSolar.org exists to help you understand solar before anyone asks you to buy anything.

No scripts.

No pressure.

Just clarity.