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One thing this article shows, is how different solar is on high vs low latitudes. Up to around 40 degrees, solar is practical, and you only need to take the nig

One thing this article shows, is how different solar is on high vs low latitudes. Up to around 40 degrees, solar is practical, and you only need to take the nights and possibly cloud cover into account, at 60 degrees, the seasonal variation is too high to be stored in a parctical way, even with his assumption of flat consumption through the year, which is quite unrealistic with the short days and low temperatures at high latitudes. It means that off the grid solar is unrealistic in Northern Europe, but it can be a possibility many other places in the world.

jacquesm 11y ago
I ran an off-the-grid fairly normal house in Northern Canada, solar was > 70% of our power. Seasonal variations are not leveled by batteries but by properly dimensioning the system and reduced consumption. So off the grid solar is very realistic in higher latitudes, especially if you take into consideration that panels will generate a lot more power when they're cold than when they are warm. The most power I ever saw generated instantaneously was on a terribly cold day in February (but that was exceptional). Sure the days are shorter but you adapt to the reduced energy budget fairly easily. Off the grid solar is unpractical the world over if you don't adapt your consumption.
- codecamper 11y ago
  Wow that is great that you were 70% solar in North Canada. Yes I've heard that panels can output actually more than their rated capacity when sunny & cold. I think the big problem people have with going PV, is that there isn't a good manual on how to go solar. & much of it is changing and improving as we speak.
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    There may not be a manual simply because every situation is different (and it's a personal thing too), but there is a huge community of renewable energy enthusiasts at http://www.otherpower.com/ http://www.otherpower.com/ , they have a discussion board at http://www.fieldlines.com/ http://www.fieldlines.com/ . Collectively they have a huge amount of knowledge about anything related to renewables and anybody considering going off grid could do a lot worse than to become a member and to start reading forum threads. They range all the way from people interested but not actually doing anything to people operating fair sized solar and wind farms and everything in between.

jacquesm 11y ago

I ran an off-the-grid fairly normal house in Northern Canada, solar was > 70% of our power. Seasonal variations are not leveled by batteries but by properly dimensioning the system and reduced consumption. So off the grid solar is very realistic in higher latitudes, especially if you take into consideration that panels will generate a lot more power when they're cold than when they are warm. The most power I ever saw generated instantaneously was on a terribly cold day in February (but that was exceptional). Sure the days are shorter but you adapt to the reduced energy budget fairly easily. Off the grid solar is unpractical the world over if you don't adapt your consumption.

codecamper 11y ago
Wow that is great that you were 70% solar in North Canada. Yes I've heard that panels can output actually more than their rated capacity when sunny & cold. I think the big problem people have with going PV, is that there isn't a good manual on how to go solar. & much of it is changing and improving as we speak.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  There may not be a manual simply because every situation is different (and it's a personal thing too), but there is a huge community of renewable energy enthusiasts at http://www.otherpower.com/ http://www.otherpower.com/ , they have a discussion board at http://www.fieldlines.com/ http://www.fieldlines.com/ . Collectively they have a huge amount of knowledge about anything related to renewables and anybody considering going off grid could do a lot worse than to become a member and to start reading forum threads. They range all the way from people interested but not actually doing anything to people operating fair sized solar and wind farms and everything in between.