Capacity Factor Of Solar Panel

A post i wrote a little over two years ago concluded that solar pv capacity factors in the us ranged between 13 and 19 with an average of around 16.

Capacity factor of solar panel.

Recently however the us energy information agency published a table showing an average capacity factor of around 28 for utility sized pv plants in the us in 2015. The capacity factor for solar panels varies between 15 and 40. A home that consumes 1 000 kwh per month will normally need between 20 and 30 solar panels. See the technical note for an explanation of how capacity factors are calculated.

As we have seen the capacity factor varies quite a bit for solar photovoltaic systems depending on the location. Capacity utilisation factor is usually expressed in percentage. Both systems will generate the same amount of power in the same geographic location. Consequently the capacity factor of the solar energy system here is much lower than that of phoenix at about 16.

In the real world most solar panels tend to have efficiencies in the 16 19 range though some manufacturers like mission and sunpower have higher end panels that have efficiencies exceeding 20. If this value were estimated using dc capacity the dc capacity factor would be about 22. Recently however the us energy information agency published a table showing an average capacity factor of around 28 for utility sized pv plants in the us in 2015. The capacity factor is a general term for all power generating systems and refers to the difference between what the system can achieve at continuous 100 output the power rating versus what it actually achieves under normal less than 100 operating conditions.

For example the ac capacity factor for solar pv facilities operating in 2017 was 27. A post i wrote a little over two years ago concluded that solar pv capacity factors in the us ranged between 13 and 19 with an average of around 16. One of the key reasons for this low ratio is the nature of renewable power. Generally it is in the range of 10 25.

How many solar panels do you need to power your home. The performance of a pv power plant is often denominated by a metric called the capacity utilisation factor. Time adjusted capacity for year rows is a time weighted average of the month rows. In practical terms a solar panel system with a total rated capacity of 5kw kilowatts could be made up of either 20 250 watt panels or 16 300 watt panels.