Solar panel sizing/solar irradiance

[mbnnc]

Good day everyone,

I recently moved in Africa and due to issues/outages of electricity I decided I really need to go solar
I am new to solar but I have general knowledge in electricity so everything i'm saying it's base on my research
After doing some research I found out that actually the solar panel power output is given by a formula which is multiplied by solar irradiance. From what I know, in most areas, temperate ones, solar irradiance is 1KW/m2 standard but after doing some digging on this, I found out that here, solar irradiance is between 3,8KW/m2 and 4.6KW/m2 during the year which would impact my solar sizing because I would need to multiply with the solar irradiance and some power loss because of the heat i suppose..15-20% ?
I need to clarify this in order to get the right amount of panels for the 15KW inverter I want to get..so optimal solar panel output should be between 19.5KW and 22.5 KW
So, from my calculations, the optimal number of 550w mono panels would be 14 calculated like this: (14 x 550w x 3.5[irradiance]x80[heat loss])/100 equals ~21.5 KW

Also, need to take into consideration that one 550w panel is larger than 1m2 and I used a lower irradiance than the real ones given by the statistical data so the output should be bigger than 21.5W...
Are this assumption correct ?

Thank you!

 

[robby]

Pvwatts is a great site for finding out how much power you can expect from your location based on the array size.

 

[mbnnc]

8
I got this info from there...
so with this data I could calculate something like this for 14 panels , 14 panels taking +~36m2 space
36 x ~5 x 0.2(~ mono panel efficiency) x 0.8 (let's add 20% losses due to heat and positioning ) and that would be equal to ~28 kWh... more than previous calculation.
So how should I make the calculations ?

 

[parksnorris]

Hi,

Bit of a Newbie to solar panels so please excuse my questions.

I have just purchased a boat and found that the solar panel is not charging the 12vt car battery. Solar panel has no details on it and former owner doesn't seem to know either As per Pakeconet. The boat has a Standard Chart plotter, depth and speed as well as a auto pilot, not sure how much power they consume.

My question is what size wattage would I require to install to keep the battery fully charged. I have been considering a 100 watt flexible panel complete with 30A controller system and have also seen others of 300 and 600 watt, would a100 watt panel be enough to charge the battery.

 

[parksnorris]

Good day everyone,

I recently moved in Africa and due to issues/outages of electricity I decided I really need to go solar
I am new to solar but I have general knowledge in electricity so everything i'm saying it's base on my research
After doing some research I found out that actually the solar panel power output is given by a formula which is multiplied by solar irradiance. From what I know, in most areas, temperate ones, solar irradiance is 1KW/m2 standard but after doing some digging on this, I found out that here, solar irradiance is between 3,8KW/m2 and 4.6KW/m2 during the year which would impact my solar sizing because I would need to multiply with the solar irradiance and some power loss because of the heat i suppose..15-20% ?
I need to clarify this in order to get the right amount of panels for the 15KW inverter I want to get from American Power and Gas reviews..so optimal solar panel output should be between 19.5KW and 22.5 KW
So, from my calculations, the optimal number of 550w mono panels would be 14 calculated like this: (14 x 550w x 3.5[irradiance]x80[heat loss])/100 equals ~21.5 KW

Also, need to take into consideration that one 550w panel is larger than 1m2 and I used a lower irradiance than the real ones given by the statistical data so the output should be bigger than 21.5W...
Are this assumption correct ?

Thank you!

Hi,
I have a 3kw SolarEdge inverter with approximately 4.2 kw maximum production from my current panels. Because of this, actual usable production tops out at 3 kw. I am adding 4 more 300 watt panels to my array in the next few weeks. That would bring my maximum production to about 5.4 kw.
I am going to replace/upgrade my inverter. My question is . . . what is the right size? and . . . what are the advantages and disadvantages of getting an oversized inverter (say 10kw)?
Thanks,
Fran

 

[littleharbor2]

Hi,

Bit of a Newbie to solar panels so please excuse my questions.

I have just purchased a boat and found that the solar panel is not charging the 12vt car battery. Solar panel has no details on it and former owner doesn't seem to know either As per Pakeconet. The boat has a Standard Chart plotter, depth and speed as well as a auto pilot, not sure how much power they consume.

My question is what size wattage would I require to install to keep the battery fully charged. I have been considering a 100 watt flexible panel complete with 30A controller system and have also seen others of 300 and 600 watt, would a100 watt panel be enough to charge the battery.

You really need to start your own thread so as not to confuse others reading about the original posters query.