Where is the Power Going

In this episode, Where is the Power Going? . . .

Have you ever wondered where the electricity generated by a PhotoVoltaic (PV) Solar system goes when the system is shut down? Stay tuned for the answer.

On Thursday, February 16, 2023, about 22 attendees from the Cenergy Power staff attended a carport system project tour of a One MegaWatt-DC (1MW-DC) PV solar array at Long Beach Memorial Hospital, in Long Beach, CA. hosted by Eilroma Sarkis, Cenergy's Project Manager. For many, this was the first time visiting a commercial solar installation. As expected, there were a lot of questions from the guests.

To get an idea of the scale of this project, each carport section spans about 45 feet in width and is 200 feet long. There are five such arrays. The tour lasted about one hour; our host explained every aspect of system construction; module layout, system orientation, electrical components, wiring, inverters, shutdown panel boards, interconnection to the hospitals' main electrical service, system monitoring, electrical grounding, and much more. Click the YouTube link to view a few attendees' photos, reactions, and comments.

However, one nagging question kept coming to my mind: "We are standing under a connected 648.72 kW-DC PV Solar Array that is generating DC Power. The system is turned off. Where is the electricity being generated by the modules going?

After discussions with one of our electrical engineers and studying a few physics videos on YouTube, I was reminded that PV solar modules are passive devices. This means the over 1,224 - 530 Watt PV modules only produce a current (electrical flow) when connected to a load. Translation; A load occurs when Power is requested by lighting in the hospital, air conditioning, possible battery storage, or any other on-demand electricity requirements.

Since this system's inverters were turned off, this is considered an open circuit. The 10-50kW string inverters were not fulfilling the demand for a load. Therefore no power (voltage x current) was generated by the system.

However, another fundamental principle applies, the "Conservation of Energy." During a shutdown, the modules will continue to convert sunlight into DC electricity. The electricity generated by the PV modules will dissipate as heat.

The system will simply "idle" until turned on, then the inverters convert the DC electricity into AC electricity that can be used or stored. It's important to note that even when a PV solar system is turned off, there can still be some residual voltage, which can be dangerous. Therefore, it's necessary to follow proper safety procedures when working on or around a PV solar system, even when it is turned off.

Now you know the rest of the story!

I'm Patrick Ball; thanks for listening. See you in the next episode.

Comments

The Language of Home: Building a Sanctuary

This episode is for anyone trying to find their footing in a new place—whether it’s a new city, a new job, or a new country. The light in Florence, Italy, has a way of making everything feel like a Renaissance painting—the golden hue on the stone, the steady rhythm of the Arno River, and the feeling that you are walking through a history much larger than yourself. I was there to give a presentation to a class of Gemology students. I was prepared to discuss color grading and refractive indices, but not to be outed as a language tutor . Feeling very much like a guest in a storied land, a hand shot up enthusiastically. "You’re the guy on the podcasts," the young woman said, her eyes bright with recognition. "You’re the one teaching us English." I laughed nervously. If you know my flat Midwestern accent, you know the irony here. I am hardly an Oxford professor. But later, as I wandered the cobblestone streets beneath the shadow of the Duomo, the humor faded into a powe...

Practiced Hands: The 50-Year Warranty

What Doc Burch Taught Me About Staying Active. We talk a lot about "life hacks" these days, but most of them don’t have a very long shelf life. Usually, they’re forgotten by the next app update. But back in 1972, I received a piece of advice that came with a 50-year warranty. It’s the reason I’m still on my bike today, still chasing a golf ball around Carlsbad, and still—mostly—in one piece. The Kick That Changed Everything It started with a literal kick in the pants. A kid at school in Cuba, Illinois, was joking around and caught me just right. By the next morning, my lower back was screaming. My mom didn’t reach for the Tylenol; she reached for her car keys. "Let’s go see Doc Burch," she said. "He’ll fix you right up." Harry E. Burch, D.C., was a fixture in Lewistown. He’d graduated from Palmer College in ’59 and had been our family’s go-to for years. He was a man of practiced hands and steady eyes. After a quick exam and an X-ray, the mood in the room s...

On the Fly–Taking Flight

In this special 500th episode, On the Fly is moving to a new home. Here’s why—and what’s staying the same. For a very long time (since April 2012), On the Fly has lived on Blogger . Blogger has been a reliable host—dependable, quiet, and never complaining when I arrived late with another half-baked idea, a guitar riff, or a story that needed a little air. It faithfully archived my thoughts, my music, and more than a decade of curiosity. But the internet has changed. It’s louder now. Flashier. More insistent. Every thought is nudged to perform. Every sentence wants to be optimized, monetized, or interrupted by something that really wants your attention right this second. I’ve been craving the opposite. So today, On the Fly is moving to Substack . If you’ve been with me for a while, you know my quiet obsession: the A rt of Seeing . I’m interested in the moments we rush past—the Aversion Trap, the discipline hidden inside a guitarist’s daily practice, t...

Life OS: Version 2026

In this episode: Why Your Mind Feels Like It Has 47 Tabs Open. Back in 2017, I wrote about how your mind was a blank slate at birth. A Tabula Rasa . Clean. Empty. Ready for some elegant code. Bless my 2017 heart. But in 2026, that “blank slate” looks more like a cluttered desktop. Forty-seven open tabs. A “Storage Full” warning. A cooling fan that’s screaming for mercy. If our minds are computers—and I’m convinced they are—most of us are running cutting-edge, high-demand software on hardware that’s still trying to process a resentment from 2004. So . . . let’s update the experiment. This isn’t about reinventing your life. It’s about fine-tuning your firmware—without crashing the system. The Legacy Code (Or: Why You’re Still Like This) We all run on firmware: low-level code installed early and rarely questioned. The Good Stuff: Breathing? Big fan. The Buggy Stuff: Ancient survival logic from ancestors who assumed every unfamiliar sound meant “ Run or Die. ” That same code now trea...

On The Fly

Search This Blog