Stratton Solar Power Information & Peak Sun Hours
Solar Green Energy Summary for Stratton, Colorado
Lattitude: 39.3029
Sunlight
Fixed Tilt Sunlight Hours: 6.3 hours per day
1-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 7.8 hours per day
2-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 7.9 hours per day
If you put your solar powered math calculator in your backpack it will turn off from the lack of sunlight needed to power the device. As you slowly open your backpack and begin to let sunlight in, the calculator will eventually turn on when the amount of sunlight is enough to power the calculator. Similarly, peak sun hours refer to the hours of they day where the sunlight is strong enough to power a solar panel. This is different from total sunlight hours, which is simply the amount of hours in a day when there is any sunlight.
The latitude at the equator of the earth is zero degrees. This is where sunlight strikes the earth most directly. Due to the earth's curved shape, sunlight hits at a various angles depending on location. As latitude increases, the further you are located from the equator and more variance you see in sunlight hours. The latitude of Stratton is 39.3.
Throughout the day the sun obviously moves throughout the Stratton 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
The sunrise and sunset is very predictable every day, but things like cloud coverage and weather are less predictable and vary daily and annually. If a location that is usually very sunny experiences a huge increase in storms and cloud coverage in a given year than the average peak sun hours for that day or year will probably decrease. Tall objects such as trees and buildings can block out the sun during high solar insolation times, so be sure to strategically place your solar panels to get better efficiency.
The average daily peak sunlight hours in Stratton, Colorado is 6.3 hours. Use this number when trying to calculate your solar needs in Stratton. As you can see above, if you were to use a 1-Axis or 2-Axis panel then the daily average would increase to 7.8 hour and 7.9 hours, respectively.
Helpful & Interesting
How many kWh does a 5kW solar system produce?
First, it is good to know the difference between a kilowatt (kW) and a kilowatt hour (kWh). A kW is 1,000 Watts and is a measure of power. A kWh is a measure of energy equivalent to the power consumption of 1,000 Watts for one hour. The Clean Energy Council estimates that each 1,000W (1kW) of solar PV produces on average, 3.6 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per day in Victoria and 3.8 kWh in northern Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland. You can quickly understand the amount of energy your system will generate in Victoria by calculating the system size in kWs x 3.6 kWhs. To calculate your system size, multiply the number of panels by the capacity per panel (265W). Eg. 19 panels x 265W = 5.035kW system. According to the Clean Energy Council, a 5.035kW system would therefore produce 18.126kWhs of electricity per day. A 5kW system producing 18.1kWhs per day x 365 days per year = 6,752kWhs. The average daily consumption for a household is 18-20kWhs per day. If there is no-one home during the day, you could export energy back to the grid and receive a feed-in tariff (currently a minimum of 11.3c/kWh in Victoria) as additional income on top of your electricity savings.