Richwood Solar Power Information & Peak Sun Hours
Solar Green Energy Summary for Richwood, West Virginia
Lattitude: 38.2221
Sunlight
Fixed Tilt Sunlight Hours: 4.2 hours per day
1-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 5.4 hours per day
2-Axis Tilt Sunlight Hours: 5.7 hours per day
If you put your solar powered math calculator in your backpack it will turn off from the lack of sunlight needed to power the device. As you slowly open your backpack and begin to let sunlight in, the calculator will eventually turn on when the amount of sunlight is enough to power the calculator. Similarly, peak sun hours refer to the hours of they day where the sunlight is strong enough to power a solar panel. This is different from total sunlight hours, which is simply the amount of hours in a day when there is any sunlight.
Sunlight hits the earth directly at the equator. This is why the equator has a latitude of zero degrees. The latitude of Richwood is 38.2. Knowing the latitude of Richwood can help you plan for your solar panel setup, as the larger the latitude the more variance you will see throughout the year for total daily sunlight hours.
Throughout the day the sun obviously moves throughout the Richwood 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
Climate in your geographical region is a major factor that will influence average peak sun hours per year. If you live in a region that does not have a lot of completely sunny days, then cloud coverage will greatly influence solar insolation on any given day. Mountains and trees may also contribute to lower solar insolation if they block the sun from your panels at any given point of the day.
For a fixed mounted solar panel in Richwood, meaning that the solar panel will not track the sun in the sky, once can expect about 4.2 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 5.7 hours per day in Richwood.
Helpful & Interesting
What are the types and forms of energy?
All forms of Energy in the universe are in effect the result of the basic Strings of energy (quanta). They can shift between linear or angular momentum. The quanta in their linear momentum act as the main transmitter of energy between objects. The other mean of energy transmission is through conductivity, ie vibrating atoms transferring some of their energies to the adjacent atoms.