There's no shortage of information on solar power these days.
But most of is geared towards homeowners looking to reduce their monthly energy bill.
The flood of information on residential solar is understandable. After all, solar power only became economically viable in the last decade or so, as panel efficiency improved and manufacturing costs declined. So it's natural that we're in a period in which residential solar power's new status as a money-saver is being broadcast widely.
Residential projects are also generally very visible. Roofs bedecked with solar panels are fast becoming a regular feature of the American landscape.
But despite all the buzz, when it comes to solar, residential projects aren't the only game in town. You may have even heard the terms utility-scale and commercial solar thrown around and wondered what each means and how they differ.
Well, wonder no more since that's what we'll be covering today.
Residential Solar
Residential solar refers to solar installations that are attached to and dedicated to providing power for a single-family home.
Residential solar panels are usually installed on the homeowner's roof. But, for those with a bit of a small piece of unused and unobstructed ground space, ground-mounted solar panels are another option.
Residential solar systems generally run between 4 kilowatts (kW) and 16 kW in size.
Commercial Solar
Next in size are commercial solar projects.
Sometimes also referred to as "Commercial & Industrial (C&I) Solar," commercial solar installations are attached to and dedicated to providing power for businesses, government agencies, and nonprofits.
As you may have guessed, commercial solar systems are typically larger than residential ones, usually running somewhere between 10 kW and 100 kW in size.
Though the solar systems powering huge corporations like Amazon and Apple tend to run even larger. Amazon's fulfillment center in Tilbury, England, for example, has a capacity of 350 kW.
Utility-Scale Solar
Lastly, there's utility-scale solar. These are the biggest solar projects of all.
Instead of powering a single home, business, or other organization—as their name suggests—utility-scale installations are massive large-scale projects built by power companies to generate electricity that they then sell to their customers.
Utility-scale solar installations serve the exact same function as the big plants that generate electricity by burning fossil fuels—just without all the depletion of scarce resources and pollution.
According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), utility-scale solar projects are defined as having a total generation capacity of 1,000 kW or greater.