Solar panels have a host of benefits, both for people and for the world at large. Economically, solar panels promise to lower the cost of electrical energy. From an environmental point of view, solar panels can provide us with cleaner and more sustainable energy that will not require further damage to the environment. Solar energy can reach remote areas. May include urgently needed medical information or education.
However, the effects of clouds on a solar panel could lessen those and other promising benefits.
The effects of clouds on a solar panel can make it much less efficient in certain parts of the world and in certain seasons.
For that reason, people who are considering solar panels for their homes are often heard asking: will clouds affect my solar panels?
Will clouds affect my solar panels?
Clouds affect solar panels. The amount of energy your solar panels can produce depends directly on the level of light they receive.
In full sunlight, solar panels receive maximum levels of light. During those hours of “peak” sunlight, your solar panels will produce power at their maximum capacity.
When clouds cover the sun, light levels are lowered. However, this does not stop energy production. If there is enough light to cast a shadow, despite the clouds, your solar panels should operate at about half their full capacity. A thicker cloud layer will further reduce operations. Eventually, with heavy cloud cover, solar panels will produce very little useful energy.
The good news!
However, the effects of clouds on a solar panel can be surprisingly good. Unbelievably, your solar panels will put out their full peak power during cloudy weather.
As the sun moves through a hole in the clouds, your solar panels will see something wonderful. They will see direct sunlight “plus” reflected light from clouds! They will drink more energy than they could on a clear day!
The effects of clouds on a solar panel could produce peaks equal to or greater than 50 percent more than its direct solar output!
Facing the challenge
There are ways to meet the cloud challenge.
1. If you often have clouds in the afternoon, but the mornings are clear, point the solar panels slightly to the east.
2. Be sure to use a battery system large enough to maximize the amount of stored energy to use when the clouds arrive.
3. Make sure your controller has enough clearance above the panel’s rated output power so that it can absorb surges when the sun reflects off the clouds.
Those tricks and more are practiced in cloudy regions of the world where people are far ahead of the United States in using the energy from solar panels.
Effects of clouds on a solar panel in Germany
Germany is typically a very cloudy country. Read up on Germany’s climate and you will find it to be “mild and marine; cool, cloudy and humid winters and summers; occasional warm mountain wind (foehn)” according to the Nation Master website.
Yet despite its cloudy weather, Germany is by far the largest user of solar panels in the world. If you lived in Germany, you could sell all the excess electricity produced by your solar panels to the main electricity grid. Why would I care in such cloudy weather? If the clouds affect my solar panels too much, I wouldn’t worry about selling to the main grid.
In 2006, Germany inaugurated the largest solar park in the world. Germany also has the most modern solar housing project in Europe: a solar village of 50 solar houses that produce more energy than they use!
Will the clouds affect my solar panels? Even if you lived in Germany, the effect would not be enough to give up solar energy.
Advice: There are few places that are so constantly cloudy that solar power is out of the question. Improvements are constantly being made, and even solar panels small enough to fold into a briefcase can produce useful amounts of energy.