Skwentna Solar Power Information & Peak Sun Hours
Solar Green Energy Summary for Skwentna, Alaska
Lattitude: 61.9314
Sunlight
Fixed Tilt Sunlight Hours: 3.1 hours per day
1-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 3.5 hours per day
2-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 4.7 hours per day
When trying to calculate your solar power needs there are a variety of factors to consider. Panel type and location, electricity needs, number of panels needed etc. One key to figuring out the math is factoring in the average peak sunlight hours in a day. Unlike total sunlight hours, peak sunlight hours are only when the sun is strong enough to power your solar panel. Using this number can help determine your needs to power your home or business in Skwentna, Alaska.
If you open the newspaper in the morning or watch the weather channel on the news you can get an accurate prediction of sunrise and sunset each day for Skwentna. However, still knowing that the latitude of Skwentna is 61.9 can be a helpful number for your solar panel setup and planning. The closer your latitude is to zero the closer you are to the equator. At the equator you find the most consistent total sunlight hours throughout any given day of the year. As your latitude increases you can see larger discrepancies of daily sunlight hours during the year. For example, having very long summer days and very short and dark winter days
Throughout the day the sun obviously moves throughout the Skwentna 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
Peak sun hours are greatly affected by weather patterns. Cloud coverage is a huge factor in peak sun hours per day because heavy cloud coverage will diminish the power of the solar insolation. You can use historical climate data to estimate average cloud and weather coverage, but it will obviously vary slightly from year to year.
For Skwentna the number of average daily peak sunlight hours for a fixed solar panel is 3.1 hours. If you are using a more efficient 1 or 2-axis panel then the number will increase to 3.5 hours for a 1-axis panel and 4.7 hours for a 2-axis panel.