DAY 27: SOLAR ENERGY; PEAK SUN HOURS EXPLAINED.

Day 27 of #100daysofSolarNuggets

     So we have gone through the basic component of a solar energy system, we’ve discussed solar panels, Inverters, charge controllers and batteries. Before we discuss the nuggets on sizing and designing a solar energy system, there are some basic terminology that we need to introduce and discuss.

We would meet a lot of these terms during the latter part of our nuggets and I believe we should take out time to discuss and understand this terms

The first on our list is PEAK SUN HOURS (PSH)

Peak Sunshine Hours (PSH)

This is simply the number of hours that the Sun’s Irradiance (Power or Energy) from the sun  is averagely equal to 1000w/m². Or in layman terms This is just the length of time when the rays from the sun is strongest, measured in hours.

Why do we use 1000w/m²?  ; This is the standard being used, so you do not need to bother to much about this. 

    The PSH value is very important when designing a solar system, it varies from place to place, so do ensure you get the exact value for your any location you plan to implement.

    Now here I got  the PSH value for Nigeria,

This map represents the yearly average of daily sums of irradiation value for Nigeria.

      From the map we can see that the northern region (the places colored deep red) gets up to an average of 6500watts-hour per m2 per day.

  We divided this value by 1000w/m2 

  6500/1000 = 6.5

This means we have 6 and a half hours when the sun is at it’s best  in the northern region.

 

The places colored blue, gets as low 4000 watts-hour per m2, when we divide that value by 1000w/m2

 4000/1000 = 4

We get only 4 hours of superb sunlight, so when implementing a solar energy system in that region we need to take cognizance of that.

           Now if there is anything you need clarification, please post a comment, or if there is anything you think i might have omitted please do let me know..