Tomorrow's energy for today's farms

You can easily check the solar conditions on your roof by looking up your address at our solkart.no.

South-facing roof surfaces give the most annual electricity production, peaking around the middle of the day. East- and west-facing surfaces produce more earlier and later in the day respectively, and give slightly lower annual production. It is worth considering where the sun sits in the sky when your electricity use is at its highest.

In principle you can have solar panels on several roof surfaces. Because of technical requirements there are certain limits on the number of panels per roof surface. It can also become more expensive the more surfaces are covered, as more inverters may be needed.

Installing or altering a solar system on an existing building, within a single dwelling unit or fire compartment, counts as a simple installation and is exempt from the application requirement under the Norwegian Planning and Building Act (pbl. § 20-1 bokstav f). If the system crosses fire compartments or dwelling units, sits within a conservation area, or is close to the shoreline or a railway line, permission may still be required. You need to check this with your local authority before installation.

Every solar system must be registered with the grid company. We take care of that process. All we need from you is your meter number. Once the system has been signed off with the grid company you become a plus customer and are paid for the surplus electricity you sell to the grid.

Once you have confirmed the quote, your order is automatically placed in a queue for your area. Your salesperson can give you an estimate of the likely waiting time in your area. You will receive an email with the expected installation date 1-3 months before work starts.

The goods are sent via a logistics company, which will contact you about delivery to your address. It is important that you answer any enquiries and questions from the logistics company so that delivery can happen as soon as possible after they get in touch. Goods are normally sent out up to 14 days before the project starts.

If the goods are marked “registered damage”, this is a routine from the supplier and something we will follow up. In most cases only the packaging is damaged and the goods themselves are unaffected. If you can see that the goods are extensively damaged, please contact us as soon as possible on 45 72 87 80.

In some places an external scaffolding company comes and puts up scaffolding a few days in advance. Elsewhere the installers make the job safe themselves, in which case it happens on the first day of installation. The scaffolding has to be anchored, and this is normally done to the wall of the building.

Solcellespesialisten has its own installers who fit the solar panels. They are experienced at installing solar and have a solid background in both the electrical and the construction side of the work. All of our installers are permanent employees, which is what secures a consistently high technical standard.

As a rule we have our own installers for connecting the solar system to the grid. They usually come once the roof installation is finished. You will receive a separate email with the connection date.

Solar panels are essentially self-cleaning. An annual check is still worthwhile: a visual inspection from the ground, and making sure the cables are secured and protected. If the panels are still particularly dirty after rain, you can hose them down gently. Avoid brushes and snow shovels, as these can scratch the panels and void the warranty.

An inverter converts the direct current (DC) from the solar panels into the alternating current (AC) the grid uses. It is an electrical component of roughly 70 x 50 cm. Cables run from the inverter both to the solar array and to the fuse box, which may be inside the house. An inverter can make some noise while producing, and there are also several fire safety requirements governing where it can be placed. Our installers help you find the best position when they fit the panels.

Solcellespesialisten supplies panels of different output ratings, mainly two types: 370Wp and 400Wp. The suppliers of the various panels vary, as we work with a range of them, which means we always have panels in stock to deliver to customers. The main brands we supply are Jasolar, Hyundai, Longi and Tongwei.

The size of a solar panel varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, and generally increases with the output of the panel. A typical size for the panels we use is about 1,7m x 1,1m.

The panels can take a great deal of snow. In areas with heavy snowfall we fit an extra rail beneath the panels so they do not break under the snow load. The project manager will assess this before installation.

The panels can take a lot of wind. If the building regulations for the area specify more than 28m/s, a project manager will assess the situation and look at what can be done to reduce the wind load.

A turnkey system from us includes everything: grid registration, design, installation, safety work, commissioning, AC connection and the final documentation.

Your electricity supplier is obliged to buy the surplus electricity in line with the agreement you have with them.

No. The electricity produced by the panels always goes to consumers in the house first. If the panels produce more than the house uses, the surplus automatically goes out onto the grid.

Solar panels will always produce something as long as they are not covered and sunlight is falling on the surface of the panel. In winter there is generally little sun, and snow will cover the panels. Around 90% of the panels’ annual production falls between March and October.

All of our inverters come with production monitoring in the form of a phone app. The electrician who commissions the system will set this up and show you how to use the app.

If the inverter is connected to the grid, a power cut on the grid will cause the inverter to stop supplying electricity. You will not have your own consumption covered by the solar panels either while the grid is down.

Kilowatt-peak (kWp) is the rated output of each solar panel under standard test conditions (STC). STC sets requirements for temperature, irradiance and angle that are only met on certain occasions in Norway. Production over the rest of the year will be a percentage of the stated kWp. Kilowatt-hours (kWh) are a measure of energy, given by power multiplied by time. If a solar panel produces at 1 kW for one hour, it has produced 1 kWh of electrical energy.

DC stands for Direct Current and AC stands for Alternating Current. Solar panels produce DC. The electricity in homes and on the grid is always AC, which is why we need an inverter to turn DC into AC.