Environment & climate Ideas & discovery

How do solar panels and wind turbines actually work

Understand the energy system well enough to follow the debate.

A course on how electricity is made and moved, and what changes with clean energy. It covers how solar, wind and batteries work, what the grid does and why it is hard, the honest trade offs of each source, and why the transition is a systems problem rather than a gadget problem.

iPhone App Store Get Cadence free

Open Cadence on the App Store, type the sentence when it asks what you want to learn, and answer a few setup questions. Free to start. Android testers can request early access.

Start with three things you can do today

Type this when Cadence asks what you want to learn

I want to understand how solar panels, wind turbines and batteries actually work and what the trade offs are. Explain the energy system so I can follow the debate about it.

Change any word so it fits your situation. The course is built from what you type and a few setup questions.

Start today

Three things you can do before the course exists.

Useful on their own. The course is for when you want the whole skill, not just the first move.

Look up your grid's live mix
Most countries publish the current share of wind, solar, gas and nuclear in real time. Ten minutes with it teaches more than a week of arguments.
Note what solar does at night: nothing, by design
Solar is paired with storage, wind and other sources. The system question is the real question, and it is answerable.
Check your own tariff for a time-of-use option
Cheap electricity overnight or midday is the grid telling you when clean power is plentiful. Shifting the washing is the smallest possible energy transition.

Best for: Environment & climate
Prerequisites: None. Bring the situation you have.
Course length: 7 to 30 lessons, sized to your goal
Lesson pace: About 10 minutes a day
Format: Read it, or play the audio
Access: Available on the App Store, with early features and Android testing access

Before the course is built

Setup asks about your situation first.

Lesson 1 opens on the moment you describe, and the examples use your role. For this request, expect questions like these.

What do you want to understand: the technology, the grid, the economics, or the politics?
Are you thinking about your own home, or the bigger picture?
Is there a claim you keep hearing that you want to check?

Right for now

If any of this sounds familiar, start here.

You do not know what happens at night

Solar seems obvious until the sun goes down.

You cannot judge the arguments

Cheap and clean versus unreliable and expensive, and no way to tell.

You are thinking about your own home

Panels, batteries, heat pumps and whether they make sense.

Course arc

Where the course goes, in order.

Cadence writes the lessons for you, so the exact path follows your answers. This is the ground a course built from this sentence covers.

01 / 06

Electricity in a nutshell

Generation, transmission and the balance that never stops.

Solar

How a panel makes power, and what clouds and nights do.

Wind

Turbines, wind speed and where they work.

Batteries and storage

What they solve and what they cannot yet.

The grid

Why matching supply to demand is the hard part.

Trade offs and the transition

Cost, land, materials and honest timelines.

What changes

What you will be able to do, and what you will stop believing.

You will be able to

Know how each source works

Solar, wind, batteries, and the fossil and nuclear plants they sit alongside.

Understand the grid

Supply and demand every second, and why storage and transmission matter.

Weigh the trade offs

Cost, reliability, land, materials and time.

Follow the debate

Which claims hold up and which are framing.

Ideas this course corrects

Renewables do not work when the sun is down or the wind drops

Individually, no. A system with storage, transmission and a mix of sources is what is being built, and that is the actual question.

Clean energy is more expensive

Compare generation, storage, transmission and reliability costs for the location and project. A single technology price is not the whole system cost.

Course questions

What to know before you start.

How do solar panels and wind turbines actually work: what can I do today?

Look up your grid's live mix. Most countries publish the current share of wind, solar, gas and nuclear in real time. Ten minutes with it teaches more than a week of arguments. Note what solar does at night: nothing, by design. Solar is paired with storage, wind and other sources. The system question is the real question, and it is answerable. Check your own tariff for a time-of-use option. Cheap electricity overnight or midday is the grid telling you when clean power is plentiful. Shifting the washing is the smallest possible energy transition.

Is this a fixed course?

No. Cadence builds the course when you type the sentence and answer a few setup questions, so the lessons follow your situation. This page describes what a course built from this request covers. You see the whole path before Lesson 1.

Who is this course for?

Do I need any prior experience?

No. Setup asks what you already know and where you want to use it, and the course starts from there. Bring a real situation if you have one; the examples are built around it.

How long does it take?

Courses run 7 to 30 lessons of about 10 minutes, sized to what you asked for. One lesson a day is the intended pace, and you can go faster. Lessons can be read or played as audio.

Does this course award a certificate or degree?

No. Cadence is for practical self-learning and does not award accredited degrees or professional certification.