Solar feed the grid?

[pskhaat]

Question to you EEs and semi-gridded folks:

Photovoltaic solar arrays produce more of a DC power form, no? As such one needs an inverter for most AC applications. How then does one match the phase of the household AC mains if you're on the grid? Also, how does one |power company monitor the power supplied back to the grid?

Can anyone elaborate?

[pwc]

This link should help explain ideas
http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/25/learn.asp

As for how they tell, it's usally on a net meter basis. In otherwords, if you meter goes ahead 2000 from your use, then it's sunny and your use drops, thus putting power back into the "grid" for let's say 500, your meter will actually spin backwards (unlike some odometers :) )
So you'd be at 1500.

That way it's a mixture of what you consume and what you produce. The only way to actually get paid by the power company is to use less than you produce.