This is of course the most important part of the entire process. The sun provides the raw energy that is captured and converted into electricity. The amount of energy that is available for us to capture at any time is dependent on your location (at different latitudes, the sun appears lower or higher in the sky which determines how much of the earths atmosphere the light has to travel through to reach us), the presence of anything that will block the sun (such as trees or buildings), the time of year (winter days are shorter than summer days) and the weather conditions (clouds and haze block sunlight).
When sunlight hits a solar panel, the light reacts with the silicon cells in the panel to produce electricity. Typically panels are constructed so that they produce electricity in multiples of 12 volts (i.e. you have 12v, 24v, 36v, 48v panels). The physical size of the panel determines the number of Amps produced overall for the given voltage. The combination of Volts x Amps = Watts which is the power that the panel will produce. For example, a 12v panel producing 10 amps of current will produce the same amount of power as a 24v panel producing 5 amps of current (both = 120 watts). You will choose what voltage panels to use depending on the configuration of your battery bank (see below), and the amperage depending upon the size of your wallet.
While the solar panels are producing electricity, you need somewhere to store it. This is because you won't be using up the electricity at the same rate as it is being generated, and you need to put the (hopefully) excess somewhere. The batteries also provide you with electricity during the night when there is no sun to power the panels. Solar panels also do not produce a constant amount of electricity during the day as this varies depending on the weather conditions and time of day. The batteries therefore also provide a means of 'smoothing' out the flow of electricity. You can think of the batteries like a water tank...the rain tops up the water tank in spurts, but you take water from the tank as a constant flow. This is very much how the electricity is stored and used from your batteries. The number of batteries that you use will depend on your usage needs. Batteries are connected together in 'banks'. Each bank will consist of a number of batteries of small voltage but large capacity totalling usually either 12v, 24v or 48v that will match the voltage of your solar panels and your inverter (see below).
The final component that you need is the inverter. This converts the low voltage electricity from your batteries (i.e. 12v DC) into 240v mains AC electricity for your house. The batteries are simply connected into one end of the inverter and your house wiring is connected to the other end. There are two types of inverter - modified sine wave and pure sine wave. Modified sine wave inverters are cheaper, but produce a rugged almost jerky type of electricity (think of driving over a rough unsealed road), whereas pure sine wave inverters produce a smooth type of electricity (the nice tarsealed highway). The difference is primarily noticed where the electricity is used to power motors which run in a series of very fast jerky motions when used with modified sinewave inverters rather than spinning smoothly with pure sinewave. This jittering motion can cause damage to the appliance over time, so it is highly recommended that for your house you only use a good pure sinewave inverter.
(B) Sunlight hitting the solar panel is converted into electricity.
(C) The electricity in the solar panel is stored in the battery bank and converted into 240v AC power by the inverter.
(D) The converted electricity is used by ordinary household appliances.
