Santa Clarita Solar Power Information & Peak Sun Hours

Solar Green Energy Summary for Santa Clarita, California

Lattitude: 34.4119

Sunlight

Fixed Tilt Sunlight Hours: 6.3 hours per day

1-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 7.6 hours per day

2-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 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.

If you open the newspaper in the morning or watch the weather channel on the news you can get an accurate prediction of sunrise and sunset each day for Santa Clarita. However, still knowing that the latitude of Santa Clarita is 34.4 can be a helpful number for your solar panel setup and planning. The closer your latitude is to zero the closer you are to the equator. At the equator you find the most consistent total sunlight hours throughout any given day of the year. As your latitude increases you can see larger discrepancies of daily sunlight hours during the year. For example, having very long summer days and very short and dark winter days

Throughout the day the sun obviously moves throughout the Santa Clarita sky. The suns position in the sky also changes throughout the year with the seasons. A fixed solar panel does not accommodate for these changes. However, a 1-axis panel rotates and follows the sun’s path during the day. A 2-axis panel both follows the sun’s daily path as well as the seasonal differences

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 Santa Clarita 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 Santa Clarita one can expect close to 6.3 average peak sun hours per day. With a 1-axis tracking mount you would get 7.6 hours per day, and 8 hours per day with a 2-axis tracking mount that tracks the sun everywhere in the sky.


Solar Businesses in Santa Clarita, California

28490 Westinghouse Pl #160
Santa Clarita, CA 91355
(661) 491-5111
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