Nebraska Sunlight Hours & Renewable Energy Information
Quick Green Energy Summary for Nebraska
Sunlight
State Sunlight Rank: 20/50
Average Annual Sunlight Hours: 2700 hours
Clear Days: 117 days per year
Summer Peak Sun Hours: 5.4 hours per day
Winter Peak Sun Hours: 4.38 hours per day
Average Peak Sun Hours : 4.79 hours per day
Wind
State Wind Rank : 14/50
Average Annual Wind Speed: 0.08 miles per hour
More Information on Nebraska Green Energy
Nebraska is an underrated state for solar power, coming in the top 20 for average peak sun hours in the United States. In 2015 the state was near last for solar power installed capacity, but since then these cornhuskers have realized the great potential of the geography of the state. Nebraska has even been called the Great American Desert, noting it’s expansive flat terrain and long strips of open farmland, which turns out to be not too bad a place for solar power with high average peak sun hours on the long sunny summer days, and not to bad of a downturn for the peak sun hours in the winter.
Because of the terrain, Nebraska has experimented with other sources of renewable energy, most notably wind turbines. Nebraska ranks in the top ten for wind speeds in the country, but also has quality average peak sun hours that would make solar power a very legitimate resource for electricity in this wonderful state
A fixed tilt solar panel does not change angles to adjust with the sun, so looking at the average peak sun hours using a fixed tilt panel can set a good baseline for calculations. On average, the state of Nebraska receives 4.79 daily peak sun hours.
This number obviously changes if you were to drill down and examine the peak sunlight hours on a daily basis because of the number of factors that can affect a solar panels ability. Natural factors, such as cloud coverage, weather, time of year and much more all impact the daily sun light hours and amount of solar insolation. Not every hour of sunlight will be converted at the same efficiency ratio, so it can help to look at the average when planning for your year.