Solar Panel Angle Latitude
How much energy, in kilowatt hours per year, would one square foot of solar cells produce?
The typical efficiency of a solar panel is around 12% so you can use that figure.
The angle that I would be setting these solar panels would be on my roof so I figure around a 45 degree angle would be the ange that these solar panels would be set at.
The location is in Rapid City, SD which has a latitude of 44 degrees North.
Rapid City’s climate is a steppe climate. And there are on average 226 days of sun per year, with 2732 hours of sun yearly.
The solar panels would be stationary.
So, I am wondering, how many kilowatt hours per year would one square foot of solar cells produce if there were 2732 hours of sunlight per year, equal to 7.5 hours per day?
It would be best to look at real historical data from the nrel maps: http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/redbook/atlas/
According to those, Rapid City gets 5 equivalent peak sun-hours per day, averaged over the year. That’s because even though the sun may be up for 12 hours in a given day, the morning and evening sun is weak, only a fraction of the noonday sun. This data also takes into account overcast days and seasons.
5 hours per day means about 1800 hours per year (I used 360 days as a crude estimate). It is reasonable to expect 12 watts per square foot of panels, maybe even 15 watts from the best ones made.
12 watts x 1800 hours = 21600 wh = 21.6 kWh per square foot.
That assumes the panels are stationary, but ideally oriented.
GPS Controlled Solar Array