Thunder Hawk Solar Power Information & Peak Sun Hours
Solar Green Energy Summary for Thunder Hawk, South Dakota
Lattitude: 45.9383
Sunlight
Fixed Tilt Sunlight Hours: 5.2 hours per day
1-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 6.1 hours per day
2-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 7 hours per day
Looking at the average peak sunlight hours in Thunder Hawk 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 Thunder Hawk, South Dakota.
Knowing the latitude of Thunder Hawk will help estimate average peak sun hours for your area. The latitude is used to accurately estimate the time of sunrise and sunset, thus giving you the total hours of daylight each day. Once you know the total hours of daylight, you can estimate the amount of peak sun hours based on a number of variables such as weather, time of year, the angle of the solar panel.
Throughout the day the sun obviously moves throughout the Thunder Hawk 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
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
In Thunder Hawk you can look at the average peak sun hours of a fixed solar panel mount, which will be 5.2 hours. This number iis an estimate based on data of previous years. With a tracking mount in Thunder Hawk you could theoretically increase the amount of peak sun hours per with a 1-axis mount, and get 6.1 hours, or a 2-axis mount and potentially increase your average to 7 hours.