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Looking at the average peak sunlight hours in Hopkinton is a valuable number for determining your solar power setup. Peak sunlight hours are only the hours a day in which the sunlight is strong enough for the solar panels to do their job. Not every hour of sunlight was created equal. For example, solar panels do not provide much use during early sunrise and sunset, and therefore you should not look at total hours of sunlight in a day, but instead focus on peak sunlight hours. Using this number will provide a much better estimate of your needs for setting up panels in Hopkinton, Rhode Island.

Sunlight hits the earth directly at the equator. This is why the equator has a latitude of zero degrees. The latitude of Hopkinton is 41.5. Knowing the latitude of Hopkinton can help you plan for your solar panel setup, as the larger the latitude the more variance you will see throughout the year for total daily sunlight hours.

Throughout the day the sun obviously moves throughout the Hopkinton sky. The suns position in the sky also changes throughout the year with the seasons. A fixed solar panel does not accommodate for these changes. However, a 1-axis panel rotates and follows the sun’s path during the day. A 2-axis panel both follows the sun’s daily path as well as the seasonal differences

Looking at latitude, average peak sun hours and various data can obviously help when planning for your solar power needs. The one thing you can never fully account for is changing weather. Storms, rain, cloud coverage all have an impact on solar panel capabilities.

Since we know the latitude of Hopkinton we can take the average amount of total sunlight hours and estimate that with a fixed solar panel there would be an average of 4.9 peak sun hours per day. 5.3 hours per day with a 1-axis tracking mount that tracks the sun from sunrise to sunset, and 5.6 hours with a 2-axis tracking mount that tracks the sun everywhere in the sky.