Quote:
Originally Posted by someguy51
A co-worker told me that solar panels won't work that well in Canada because the sun's rays doesn't hit us as directly as somewhere closer to the equator. So an equivalent solar panel setup in somewhere like Texas will create a lot more energy then one in Calgary.
|
They're half right. Peak solar insolation on a given surface is about 1kW/m^2. You get that 1kW when the sun is shining perpendicular to that surface. As the angle moves off perpendicular, a 1m^2 of that surface will see less than 1kW, just like if you tilt a piece of paper away from you it looks "smaller".
You get around this by setting the angle of your panels to be perpendicular to the sun's average path...or with solar trackers that control motors to angle your panels perpendicular to the sun at all times.
Now of course, in our winters we won't get 1kw/m^2 from even perfectly angled panels because the sun is so low that it's light must travel through more atmosphere to reach the panel than it does when right overhead in the summer.