Chimayo Solar Power Information & Peak Sun Hours
Solar Green Energy Summary for Chimayo, New Mexico
Lattitude: 35.9976
Sunlight
Fixed Tilt Sunlight Hours: 6.6 hours per day
1-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 8 hours per day
2-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 8.2 hours per day
The average peak sun hours of Chimayo is a crucial measurable component needed to efficiently implement a solar power system in a home or business. Put simply, peak sun hours are the hours of sunlight a day that are strong enough to be efficiently absorbed by solar panels and eventually turned into usable electricity. Not every minute of sunlight during a day is strong enough to be useful to a solar power system. Think about just minutes after the sunrises, which officially counts towards total hours of sunlight, but is usually too weak to be counted in peak sun hours because the strength of the solar insolation is not strong enough near the horizon to be absorbed and turned into electricity at an efficient rate. Times during the day like this, where the sun is out but not strong enough, are not counted as peak sun hours. In other words, the amount of peak sun hours in a location will theoretically always be less than total sunlight hours for a given day.
The equator has a latitude of zero while Chimayo has a latitude of 36.0. Any city located on the equator will receive the most sunlight throughout the year because the sunlight arrives at a perpendicular 90 degree angle to the earth at the equator. The further you are from the equator the more your daily sunlight hours can vary.
Throughout the day the sun obviously moves throughout the Chimayo 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 Chimayo the number of average daily peak sunlight hours for a fixed solar panel is 6.6 hours. If you are using a more efficient 1 or 2-axis panel then the number will increase to 8 hours for a 1-axis panel and 8.2 hours for a 2-axis panel.
Helpful & Interesting
Where does New Mexico get its electricity?
About one-fifth of the natural gas produced in New Mexico is consumed in the state. The electric power sector is the largest natural gas consumer in New Mexico, followed by the residential sector. Two-thirds of the state's households use natural gas as their primary energy source for home heating.