Barstow Solar Power Information & Peak Sun Hours

Solar Green Energy Summary for Barstow, Texas

Lattitude: 31.4616

Sunlight

Fixed Tilt Sunlight Hours: 5.1 hours per day

1-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 7.1 hours per day

2-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 7.7 hours per day

The average peak sun hours of Barstow is a crucial measurable component needed to efficiently implement a solar power system in a home or business. Put simply, peak sun hours are the hours of sunlight a day that are strong enough to be efficiently absorbed by solar panels and eventually turned into usable electricity. Not every minute of sunlight during a day is strong enough to be useful to a solar power system. Think about just minutes after the sunrises, which officially counts towards total hours of sunlight, but is usually too weak to be counted in peak sun hours because the strength of the solar insolation is not strong enough near the horizon to be absorbed and turned into electricity at an efficient rate. Times during the day like this, where the sun is out but not strong enough, are not counted as peak sun hours. In other words, the amount of peak sun hours in a location will theoretically always be less than total sunlight hours for a given day.

Knowing that the latitude of Barstow is 31.5 can be helpful for understanding total sunlight hour variance. As you approach the equator latitude approaches zero. The closer the latitude is to zero, the more consistent the daily sunlight hours are throughout the year. Total sunlight hour consistency simply makes planning for your solar power needs easier, but it is certainly not a requirement.

They type of solar panel you use has an affect on the average peak sunlight hours. Some panels allow for movement, so they can track the sun as it rises in the east and sets in the west, or as the seasons change and the sun's path changes. A fixed panel remains fixed and does not have the ability to rotate, whereas a 1-axis and 2-axis panel can adjust with the sun.

Weather is a big determinate of average peak sun hours each day. There are many aspects of weather that can increase or lessen the peak sun hours in a day in a particular location. For example cloud coverage is a crucial variable. And more importantly, what type of cloud coverage; thin scattered clouds will have less diminishing power on the solar insolation than thick rainy storm clouds. Sometimes long periods of sunny days are rare in certain locations, this would increase average peak sun hours for that time-frame

We can use previous years of data to estimate the amount of peak sun hours in Barstow. A fixed tilt mount for example will receive 5.1 average hours per day. For more efficiency for your system in Barstow you could use a 1-axis tracking mount and increase your daily peak sun average to 7.1 hours, or even further with a 2-axis panel to get an average of 7.7 hours.


Solar Businesses in Barstow, Texas




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