Does solar energy work all the time? What about at night and cloudy days?
The sun is needed for solar panels to convert sunlight into electricity. During times when sunlight is not available, the solar panel goes into sleep mode or standby mode. There are two solutions if electricity is needed when sunlight is absent. Solution one is switching to a utility grid that can be simultaneously used along with solar power. Solution two is to install a battery that stores the electricity that was converted thoughout the day by the solar panels for later use when sunlight is not present.