Winter is here!

What does winter that mean for my solar?

What does winter do to my solar panels production? It’s not as bad as you might think. Solar panels actually work better when they are cold, the voltage increases. This sounds counter intuitive as they need the sun’s light to produce energy. Think of it this way. The solar panels that work best are the ones in space when it is freezing cold and there are no atmospheric particles blocking the photons on their way to knock off the silicon atoms in the panels, which then travel down the PV cables to the inverter where it is converted into usable AC power. The yield does decrease though, especially in the Cape. The main cause of this the shorter days and the rainy weather. I often get asked how much solar do we get on a rainy day. The worst day in the year so far was on the 17 of April, pretty much stay in bed weather the whole day. A 16 x 620 Aiko Solar panel array totalling 9,9kWp of panels produced 4.9kWh in that day. The very next day was also rainy but not quite s bad and the system produced 20kWh of solar. That’s enough to get the 12kWh battery fully charged and supply some loads. On a good summer day those panels would be able to provide 60kWh in a day. So you loose about 80% to 90% production on the really bad days, but those days are few and far between. So winter does mean less solar panel production but there is still a significant amount that is produced.

Contact us to get highly accurate yield forecasts in your area.