Merryville Solar Power Information & Peak Sun Hours

Solar Green Energy Summary for Merryville, Louisiana

Lattitude: 30.7571

Sunlight

Fixed Tilt Sunlight Hours: 4.4 hours per day

1-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 6 hours per day

2-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 6.7 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 Merryville is 30.8.

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.

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.

We can use previous years of data to estimate the amount of peak sun hours in Merryville. A fixed tilt mount for example will receive 4.4 average hours per day. For more efficiency for your system in Merryville you could use a 1-axis tracking mount and increase your daily peak sun average to 6 hours, or even further with a 2-axis panel to get an average of 6.7 hours.


Solar Businesses in Merryville, Louisiana




Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *