4 ms·
Math. Once you account for night, impingement angle, weather, atmospheric absorption, panel efficiency, dirt, seasons, storage efficiency, etc it averages out a
by ctdonath 6y ago
Math. Once you account for night, impingement angle, weather, atmospheric absorption, panel efficiency, dirt, seasons, storage efficiency, etc it averages out around 13W/m^2 long term.
Experience. I run my “office” all summer on solar. 1m^2 panel gives 70W max; usable light about 8 hours, average over a day is 23W. Halve that for winter, overcast, etc.
- smaddox 6y agoGotcha. That still seems a bit low for where I live, assuming 18% efficient panels. Roughly 5kW.hr/m^2 averaged over the year, so 5000/24*0.18 = 37.5 W/m^2. And of course solar thermal in the desert can do quite a bit better than that.