Today was the Summer Solstice - the longest day of the year and the time when the sun is at its maximum elevation.  Whilst druids spend the day dancing round Stonehenge and Avebury, those with PV systems spend the day wondering whether this will be the day that the maximum number of photons land on their PV arrays.  In this blog update, our Sun Switch Solar PV Designer Phillip Rushforth keeps us up to date with how his own PV system has performed. “21st June - the longest day for daylight hours, but did my PV system break records?  No, it was going well until about 2:30pm when an occasional grey cloud appeared. Within an hour, the sky was 7/8 cloud (cloud cover is denoted in eighths). The sun briefly appeared for the last 20 minutes before setting for the night.  My output for today was 13.1 units - very acceptable, but not the highest so far this year.  However, in the 110 days since installation, my system has generated 1184 units. This is more than 50% of my projected annual output, so if the next 110 days generates 1000 units, then any units generated during the winter (145 days) will all be in excess of my annual projection.  So whilst I’m a bit disappointed at today’s output, overall I am very happy with the cumulative results”.
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Today was the Summer Solstice - the longest day of the year and the time when the sun is at its maximum elevation.  Whilst druids spend the day dancing round Stonehenge and Avebury, those with PV systems spend the day wondering whether this will be the day that the maximum number of photons land on their PV arrays.  In this blog update, our Sun Switch Solar PV Designer Phillip Rushforth keeps us up to date with how his own PV system has performed.

“21st June - the longest day for daylight hours, but did my PV system break records?  No, it was going well until about 2:30pm when an occasional grey cloud appeared. Within an hour, the sky was 7/8 cloud (cloud cover is denoted in eighths). The sun briefly appeared for the last 20 minutes before setting for the night.  My output for today was 13.1 units - very acceptable, but not the highest so far this year.  However, in the 110 days since installation, my system has generated 1184 units. This is more than 50% of my projected annual output, so if the next 110 days generates 1000 units, then any units generated during the winter (145 days) will all be in excess of my annual projection.  So whilst I’m a bit disappointed at today’s output, overall I am very happy with the cumulative results”.

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