Yash
In October our 5-kW solar produced 647 kWh of energy and saved Rs. 4519 in total.
The beginning of October in North India is the end of the monsoon season.
Now, the air becomes dry and the wind speed decreases.
The sunlight intensity is comparatively less than the previous month.
If you want to know how our 5-kW solar performed in September then read,” Energy produced and money saved by solar in September”
The working of Solar
A solar power system is an arrangement that captures the sunlight and converts it into electricity to run our electrical appliances.
The solar panel is the first interface that absorbs the sunlight and converts it into direct current.
This direct current goes into the inverter.
It converts this DC into AC and runs our electrical appliances.
The energy produced by 5 kW solar in October
The energy generated by solar in a day is measured in kWh.
On average a 5-kW solar in good sunlight makes 20 units in a day.
The energy produced is not constant.
It keeps changing every moment due to the change in the relative position of the earth and the sun.
(It is due to the rotation of the earth around its axis and revolution around the sun).
The main factors that affect the output of the solar panels are:
- Sunlight Intensity or Peak Sun Hours
- Climate of the region
- Latitude of the location
- Tilt of the solar panels
- Technology of the solar panels
Energy production by 5-kW solar from Oct 1 to Oct 10
October month sees the transition from the monsoon season to the arrival of winter takes place.
It is generally marked by a gradual reduction in the sunlight intensity due to the formation of fog, smog, mist, and haze.
I noted the daily energy production by the 5-kW solar and tabulated below:
You can see that in the first 10 days of the month, the energy produced is above 22 kWh.
(It is a good performance).
Except for the 2 days of 8th and 9th October.
On these days, the grid supply was shut down for 45 minutes each.
isn’t the output of the solar power system independent of the grid?
No, in a grid-tied system, the solar inverter needs an input voltage for its functioning.
Therefore, it’s input is connected to the grid.
When the grid shuts down, the solar inverter does not work.
Hence, the whole solar power system stops working.
This is the reason for the low energy production on the 8th and 9th of October.
You can also see the highest power is close to 4 kW in the first 10 days of the month.
From Oct 11 to Oct 20
This could go above 4.5 kW in summer around noon.
The trend of maximum power produced close to 4 kW continues till the 12th of the month.
Thereafter, the maximum power by the solar panels was reduced to 3.5 kW.
It also affected the energy produced by the solar panels.
The energy production on the 14th and 16th was 18 kWh and 14.4 kWh respectively.
It was due to the grid shutdown on those days.
The 17th of October was the day with the lowest energy production.
This lowest energy production was due to 2 main factors:
The first, the day was full of haze and the second, the grid supply was down for 4 hours.
Both these factors made the solar panels produce the lowest energy of 4.2 kWh on that day.
The very next day 18th October, the sky was clear and our solar panels produced the maximum energy of the month.
It was 26.4 kWh.
Energy production from Oct 21 to Oct 31
The last week of the month was marked by low sunlight intensity and the frequent grid shutdown.
This made energy production the lowest in the last week.
Weekly and the total Energy production
Let us see the weekly performance of 5 kW solar.
First week (1st to 7th October): 174.9 units (clear sky and no grid shut down)
The first week’s daily average: 25 units
Second week (8th to 14th): 152.1 units (clear sky but grid shutdown)
2nd-week daily average: 21.7 units
Third week (15th to 21st): 137.5 kWh (haze and long grid shutdown)
3rd week daily Average: 19.6 units
Fourth week(22nd to 28th October): 138.8 kWh (haze and frequent grid shutdown)
The fourth week’s daily average was 19.8 units
On 29th, 30th, and 31st the energy production was: 41.2 kWh
The last 3 days daily Average: 13.7 units
Total Energy Produced in 31 days = 647 kWh
October month daily average: 647kWh/31days = 21 units per day
Factors that impacted the energy production in the October month
When it was September, the clouds and the rain affected the performance of solar.
In October, it was a haze, fog, mist, and slow wind velocity that affected the solar panels’ output.
Plus, the frequent grid shutdown (11 times in 31 days).
The wind takes away the dust particles and other content in the air along with itself.
Thus, making the path clear for the sunlight to fall on the solar panels.
The low wind speed resulted in stagnated dust particles which obstructed the sunlight from falling on the solar panels.
Savings from 5-kW solar
Despite haze, fog, mist, and the frequent shutdowns in the later of the month.
Our 5-kW solar power system managed to save us Rs. 4529 which was 5% more than the previous month.
It was a little achievement of our half-cut solar cell technology based solar panels.
Conclusion
The solar panels’ maximum power production and the energy generation are affected by the:
- Fog
- Mist
- Haze
- Dust
- Slow wind speed
These factors reduced the sunlight intensity falling on the solar panels.
Along with this, there were power cuts on various days of the month which impacted its power output.
However, our highly efficient solar panels are capable of maintaining high energy production despite haze and low sunlight intensity.
The tips
- keep your solar panels clean so that they can absorb the maximum sunlight during bad weather conditions.
- Provide the right tilt to your solar panels.
- Avoid any shade near the sun and the solar panels’ periphery.
- Do consider all these factors and the losses while sizing the solar power system.
- So that you do not feel an energy shortage in the bad weather conditions.
- Look for the latest technology solar panels such as half-cut solar cell technology which are capable of producing more power under bad weather conditions.
- Buy solar panels that have long Product and Performance Warranties.
- Use energy-efficient appliances so that the energy consumption is optimized. Look for the experienced solar installers near you.
