Right now, you buy all your power (referred to as kilowatt-hours), from Duke Energy. Once you go solar, these kilowatt hours Duke Energy once produced for you, you now produce for yourself. It is like growing from your own garden, as opposed to buying your vegetables from the store. During the day time, you will overproduce. Those extra kilowatt-hours get stored on Duke Energy's grid.

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Let's think of the grid-like a bank and kilowatt-hours as money. During the day, you make all of your money and you put it in the bank. At night, when you need your money, it is available to use at a moment's notice. Day and night work the same as summer and winter. During the summer you pad your bank for the slower, winter months. 

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You win because you don't have to go out and buy your own battery. Batteries run anywhere from $8,000-$10,000 right now. Duke Energy wins because they can sell your extra kilowatt hours for profit, like a bank when you deposit money into it. Net metering coupled with the 26% federal tax credit is tons of money saved.