Barre Solar Power Information & Peak Sun Hours
Solar Green Energy Summary for Barre, Massachusetts
Lattitude: 42.423
Sunlight
Fixed Tilt Sunlight Hours: 4.8 hours per day
1-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 5.4 hours per day
2-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 6.2 hours per day
It goes without saying that throughout the year the amount of sunlight in any given day is going to vary. The time of year and weather will have a strong influence on daily sunshine. Looking at the average amount of peak sunshine hours in a day during an entire year stretch is a valuable exercise when trying to determine the amount and type of solar panels you need to install to power your business or your home. 4.8 peak sun hours means that in Barre on average there are 4.8 hours a day where the sun is strong enough for solar panels to harness its energy. This number is less than the amount of total sunlight hours in a day because there are times during the day (ex. sunrise and sunset) where the sun is not strong enough to benefit solar panels.
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 Barre. However, still knowing that the latitude of Barre is 42.4 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
There are a few ways to increase average peak sun hours per year for your solar power system. One way is to use a tracking mount solar panel instead of a fixed tilt solar panel. A 1-axis mount will track the sun throughout the sky from sunrise to sunset, giving your panel a more efficient facing direction towards the sun throughout the day. A 2-axis solar panel will track the sun in the sky throughout the day, but also change and follow the angle of the sun in the sky throughout the year. Both of these axis system solar panels will produce higher average peak sun hours than a fixed solar panel.
Weather is a big determinate of average peak sun hours each day. There are many aspects of weather that can increase or lessen the peak sun hours in a day in a particular location. For example cloud coverage is a crucial variable. And more importantly, what type of cloud coverage; thin scattered clouds will have less diminishing power on the solar insolation than thick rainy storm clouds. Sometimes long periods of sunny days are rare in certain locations, this would increase average peak sun hours for that time-frame
For a fixed mounted solar panel in Barre, meaning that the solar panel will not track the sun in the sky, once can expect about 4.8 average peak sun hours per day. A 1-axis mount would increase this number to 5.4 hours per day because the panel would be facing the sun throughout the day. A 2-axis system that tracks the sun in the sky every day of the year would get approximately 6.2 hours per day in Barre.
Helpful & Interesting
Is geothermal energy renewable or nonrenewable?
Geothermal energy is renewable because the Earth has retained a huge amount of the heat energy that was generated during formation of the planet. In addition, heat is continuously produced by decay of radioactive elements within the Earth. The amount of heat within the Earth, and the amount that is lost though natural processes (e.g. volcanic activity, conduction/radiation to the atmosphere), are much, much more than the amount of heat lost through geothermal energy production. At any one geothermal field, however, the temperature of the geothermal reservoir or the fluid levels/fluid pressure in the reservoir may decrease over time as fluids are produced and energy is extracted. Produced fluids can be re-injected to maintain pressures, although this may further cool down the reservoir if care is not taken. Over time, it is commonly necessary to drill additional wells in order to maintain energy production as temperatures and/or reservoir fluid pressures decline.