Concord Solar Power Information & Peak Sun Hours

Solar Green Energy Summary for Concord, Arkansas

Lattitude: 35.6625

Sunlight

Fixed Tilt Sunlight Hours: 5 hours per day

1-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 5.6 hours per day

2-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 6.8 hours per day

Peak sun hours is one of the most important criteria to examine when considering installing a solar power system. Peak sun hours are different than total sunlight hours in a day because the strength of the radiation of the sun varies throughout the day. For example, during sunrise and sunset the solar insolation from the sun is less powerful than at noon. For a moment of sunshine to be considered a peak sun hour the intensity needs to be at least 1 kilowatt per square meter. This means that a square meter of your solar panel should be receiving 1 kilowatt of energy from the sun. This number is used because it is an amount of light that allows a solar panel to produce output efficiently and not under perform due to lack of sunlight power.

Sunlight hits the earth directly at the equator. This is why the equator has a latitude of zero degrees. The latitude of Concord is 35.7. Knowing the latitude of Concord can help you plan for your solar panel setup, as the larger the latitude the more variance you will see throughout the year for total daily sunlight hours.

Depending on your output needs, to get more out of your solar panels you can either upgrade your technology, buy more panels, or buy different tracking type panels. A fixed solar panel remains fixed at one angle throughout the year. A 1-axis panel will produce more output because it follows the path of the sun from sunrise to sunset to maximize sun exposure. Even more productive is a 2-axis panel that not only follows the sun's path throughout the day, but also accounts for the more subtle sun changes throughout the year with the different seasons.

Weather is one of the major culprits that will cause inconsistent total peak sun hours for any given day. The sunrise and sunset will always be predictable every day, but the weather is hard to predict and cloud coverage can greatly diminish the efficiency of a solar power system on any given day. On the bright side, a location that is known to have cloudy weather a majority of the year could have unexpectedly more sunny days, so it can go both ways.

By taking the latitude of Concord one can get a close estimate of the amount of average peak sun hours per day for the geographical area. It varies with technology and the type of solar panel mount you use, but for a fixed mount solar panel in Concord one can expect close to 5 average peak sun hours per day. With a 1-axis tracking mount you would get 5.6 hours per day, and 6.8 hours per day with a 2-axis tracking mount that tracks the sun everywhere in the sky.


Solar Businesses in Concord, Arkansas




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