News about Solar, Wind and alternative green power technologies

The amount of solar energy created is a matter of discerning the number of photons of sunlight hit your solar cell and the number of those photons can move an electron to generate a current. The number of photons is equated to the quantity of photons or sunshine that lands on the solar cell and must be calculated to determine the number of solar photovoltaic cells you will require for you solar power unit.

How Is Solar Energy Calculated?

Solar energy is a mix of the number of hours of direct sunlight as well as the strength you could count on beaming at your location. This mix is referred to as insolation and is the average irradiated density calculated in kilowatt hours in a given square meter per day. As an example, the solar radiated density level of 1000 watts per square meter is an expected quantity for high noon in the heart of summertime when the sun is at its pinnacle of energy irradiation. Measuring solar irradiance on kilowatts per square meter daily basis if the sun remained brilliant and at its peak for an eight hour period, the solar radiant density would be 8.0.

Solar irradiance or density levels will fluctuate widely over the course of a year, particularly in more northern locations. For example, New York City is 6.0 in the month of June but merely 1.7 in the month of December calculating out as an annual average of 4.0. Therefore, you know that solar energy levels are seventy percent less in the initial winter month of December than it will be when June rolls around. When evaluated against Phoenix with a solar irradiant level of 7.8 in June and only 3.0 in December which averages out to 5.5 annually.

If your solar power unit is an off grid model it will be necessary to attain a capacity over 2.3 to 3 time than average June numbers would indicate. If all of these equations and solar lingo is confounding you, the internet has the standards for all locations available for you. This is courtesy of NASAs weather satellites, which have been collecting this data for a good number of years.

Using Irradiance Calculations To Design Your Solar Power Unit

Once we understand how many kilowatts are necessary to satisfy the electrical needs of your residence, we can evaluate which sized system we will need. With a grid tied system, it is fine to use your average annual irradiance for calculating and you want to have a goal of paying zero dollars to your utility provider for the entire year. If you want an off grid unit, you must use the irradiance calculation for December as the yearly power requirement must be adequate.

Divide the daily electricity required by the irradiant density level calculation and your total will be the quantity of kilowatt production your solar unit must be able to generate. Therefore, if your home is in Phoenix and you need six hundred kilowatts each month or twenty kilowatts daily, you have to produce roughly thirty six hundred watts per hour getting full sunlight. Solar cell panels give the number of watts of power of combined generation using the standard one thousand watts per square meter; you divide thirty six hundred watts by the production of your panels to total the number of solar panels you will require for your solar unit. Using this previous example, if the solar cell panel rating is set at one hundred fifty watts, you are going to require twenty four panels.

Remember that just like making a final cut to a piece of wood – calculate twice and buy once.