Solar Panel Capacity Factor

Shade the bane of your solar panel s existence.

Solar panel capacity factor. Energy information administration form eia 860 annual electric generator report and. This one is fairly self explanatory but i can t stress the effect of shade as it s particularly detrimental to your residential or commercial solar power system. The good news is that it s also one of the easiest to control as it isn t an environmental factor unless you count trees. The capacity factor is defined for any electricity producing installation such as a fuel consuming power plant or one using renewable energy such as wind or the sun the average capacity factor can also be defined.

The net capacity factor is the unitless ratio of an actual electrical energy output over a given period of time to the maximum possible electrical energy output over that period. Capacity factors are a comparison of net generation with available capacity. A post i wrote a little over two years ago concluded that solar pv capacity factors in the us ranged between 13 and 19 with an average of around 16 recently however the us energy information agency published a table showing an average capacity factor of around 28 for utility sized pv plants in the us in 2015. National renewable energy laboratory.

See the technical note for an explanation of how capacity factors are calculated. How many solar panels do you need for 1000 kwh per month. In places with expensive electricity this results in monthly electric bills of over 200. This means that if a solar panel has a capacity factor of 25 it s average energy output will be 25 of what it was designed to achieve e g a 100 watt solar panel with a capacity factor of 25 has an average energy output of 25 watts.

The capacity factor is the ratio of actual power generated per year divided by peak installed capacity one year. Thus the output for each solar panel in your array would. This post looks into the reasons for this large difference and also addresses. We have a team of state certified master electricians who have the knowledge and expertise needed to complete your job correctly and within your desired timeframe.

For the sake of example if you are getting 5 hours of direct sunlight per day in a sunny state like california you can calculate your solar panel output this way. The capacity factor for solar panels varies between 15 and 40. We are the premier solar installation company in maryland. For solar the sun is down 50 of the time and low on the horizon or obscured by clouds for a large fraction of daylight hours so the capacity factor of 10 25 will not change as solar cells improve.

How much energy does a solar panel produce. Energy information administration form eia 923 power plant operations report. 5 hours x 290 watts an example wattage of a premium solar panel 1 450 watts hours or roughly 1 5 kilowatt hours kwh. Power factor s solar panels are sure to benefit your power costs and comsumption.