Types of solar panel installations

You can put solar panels nearly anywhere, from a rooftop to a canopy above a parking lot to floating in the middle of a lake or a pond. To differentiate the types of installations, we generally put solar into four categories: residential, commercial & industrial, community solar, and utility-scale. Here are some basics about the differences between each kind of solar installation.

Homeowners nearly anywhere can benefit from a solar panel installation on their property. Most residential solar panel systems are rooftop installations on stand-alone, single-family homes. However, it is possible to have ground-mounted, carport, or pergola installations at your home. Residential solar panel systems send the electricity they produce directly to your home and send any excess back to the grid to offset your electricity bill via net metering.

To learn more about solar installations for homes, click here.

Have you ever been in a window seat on an airplane looking at all of the empty, flat roof spaces on large buildings? (No? That's just us? Cool.) It turns out these buildings, which are typically commercial or industrial businesses, are perfect for solar. Commercial and industrial solar panel installations cover any solar installed on a company, from small and medium businesses to industrial factories, with installations anywhere from rooftops to parking lot canopies at shopping centers to wide open fields on a business's property. Solar is an excellent option for industries nationwide and can even become a revenue source for many companies.

To learn more about solar for businesses, click here.

Your electrical utility relies on large power plants to provide electricity from your home and business outlets. These power plants have typically been powered by fossil fuels or nuclear energy; however, utilities increasingly rely on large-scale development of renewable resources–primarily solar and wind–to provide electricity. Utility-scale solar panel installations are massive–often between 500- and 30,000 times larger than a residential solar installation–and sell their electricity directly to utilities, meaning they can effectively provide power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses. 

To learn more about utility-scale solar panel installations, click here.

Community solar plays a unique role in making solar power directly accessible to people who can't put solar panels where they live or work. Instead of being installed onsite at your home or business, community solar is a large-scale solar farm established in your area. You can then subscribe to purchase and benefit from the solar power generated at the installation.