Melrose Solar Power Information & Peak Sun Hours
Solar Green Energy Summary for Melrose, Minnesota
Lattitude: 45.6758
Sunlight
Fixed Tilt Sunlight Hours: 4.3 hours per day
1-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 5.9 hours per day
2-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 6.4 hours per day
Looking at the average peak sunlight hours in Melrose 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 Melrose, Minnesota.
The latitude at the equator of the earth is zero degrees. This is where sunlight strikes the earth most directly. Due to the earth's curved shape, sunlight hits at a various angles depending on location. As latitude increases, the further you are located from the equator and more variance you see in sunlight hours. The latitude of Melrose is 45.7.
Throughout the day the sun obviously moves throughout the Melrose 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
There are more variables than latitude that can change average peak sun hours. Weather patterns and geography will influence solar insolation that reaches your system. Thick grey storm clouds for example will block out a lot of the sun to the point where there may be no peak sun hours in the middle of the day when the sun is usually very powerful. Trees and mountains can deflect the sunlight, so be sure your solar panel is selectively placed.
We can use previous years of data to estimate the amount of peak sun hours in Melrose. A fixed tilt mount for example will receive 4.3 average hours per day. For more efficiency for your system in Melrose you could use a 1-axis tracking mount and increase your daily peak sun average to 5.9 hours, or even further with a 2-axis panel to get an average of 6.4 hours.
Helpful & Interesting
Which state has the most wind turbines?
Wind power in the United States is a branch of the energy industry that has expanded quickly over the latest several years. For the twelve months through November 2017, 254.2 terawatt-hours were generated by wind power, or 6.33% of all generated electrical energy. As of January 2017, the total installed wind power nameplate generating capacity in the United States was 82,183 megawatts (MW). This capacity is exceeded only by China and the European Union. Thus far, wind power's largest growth in capacity was in 2012, when 11,895 MW of wind power was installed, representing 26.5% of new power capacity. In 2016, Nebraska became the eighteenth state to have installed over 1,000 MW of wind power capacity.[3] Texas, with over 20,000 MW of capacity, had the most installed wind power capacity of any U.S. state at the end of 2016. Texas also had more under construction than any other state currently has installed. The state generating the highest percentage of energy from wind power is Iowa, while North Dakota has the most per capita wind generation.