Hi there,

New to solar, recently added Canadian 8 Solar 545W panels + 8kw Sunsynk inverter, how much average power can these panels produce on a normal summer and winter sunny days in Gauteng for example? In ideal conditions if the panels have direct sunlight from morning till evening will I get about 545Wh per panel? or will this be about half the output based on the efficiency specified on the panel e.g. 21%?

Edited July 28, 20232 yr by thendifool

you should get roughly 25 kWh AC per day in ideal conditions good days could be more, bad days could be less.
Provided of course that your batteries and loads have sufficient draw on the panels.

Edited July 28, 20232 yr by WannabeSolarSparky

You can try this tool to estimate the performance: JRC Photovoltaic Geographical Information System (PVGIS) - European Commission (europa.eu)

21 minutes ago, Amit Bajpayee said:

On average, a solar panel will produce about 2 kilowatt-hours (kWh)

Really? a 50W solar panel will produce 2kWh per day? and the value in Namibian $ is not right either, so, I guess you're not local, maybe try and be more accurate and truthful in your posting, else it has no value to anyone...

From rough calculations, 9 of my fixed (to north) panels produce near 6W/W for the day, so if we're looking at 8 * 545 * 6 = app 26kWh for the day currently in summer, depending on the angle, possibly 20% less in winter, I'm guessing... so call it around 20kWh per day in winter... assuming no cloud cover, once clouds enter the picture, all bets are off and in ZAR terms, where Eksdom charge round a bout 8 ZAR/kWh here, that's 208 ZAR/day in energy production in summer... and 160 ZAR/day in winter, approximately. Of course, the electricity tariff in other parts of this country will differ some, but the 8 ZAR/unit or kWh is a preview for the rest of the country to achieve over the next year or two, I guess. Thank dog we ain't got  no more grid connection, even the extension lead to the neighbour is no more...

26 minutes ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

Really? a 50W solar panel will produce 2kWh per day? and the value in Namibian $ is not right either, so, I guess you're not local, maybe try and be more accurate and truthful in your posting, else it has no value to anyone...

From rough calculations, 9 of my fixed (to north) panels produce near 6W/W for the day, so if we're looking at 8 * 545 * 6 = app 26kWh for the day currently in summer, depending on the angle, possibly 20% less in winter, I'm guessing... so call it around 20kWh per day in winter... assuming no cloud cover, once clouds enter the picture, all bets are off and in ZAR terms, where Eksdom charge round a bout 8 ZAR/kWh here, that's 208 ZAR/day in energy production in summer... and 160 ZAR/day in winter, approximately. Of course, the electricity tariff in other parts of this country will differ some, but the 8 ZAR/unit or kWh is a preview for the rest of the country to achieve over the next year or two, I guess. Thank dog we ain't got  no more grid connection, even the extension lead to the neighbour is no more...

Just now, partly cloudy day, to be honest very seldom I see my 12 X 440 W Csun panels 49 V 12 Amps pushing max current, very close to max current 11,8 Amps.

 

1 hour ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

Really? a 50W solar panel will produce 2kWh per day? and the value in Namibian $ is not right either, so, I guess you're not local, maybe try and be more accurate and truthful in your posting, else it has no value to anyone...

From rough calculations, 9 of my fixed (to north) panels produce near 6W/W for the day, so if we're looking at 8 * 545 * 6 = app 26kWh for the day currently in summer, depending on the angle, possibly 20% less in winter, I'm guessing... so call it around 20kWh per day in winter... assuming no cloud cover, once clouds enter the picture, all bets are off and in ZAR terms, where Eksdom charge round a bout 8 ZAR/kWh here, that's 208 ZAR/day in energy production in summer... and 160 ZAR/day in winter, approximately. Of course, the electricity tariff in other parts of this country will differ some, but the 8 ZAR/unit or kWh is a preview for the rest of the country to achieve over the next year or two, I guess. Thank dog we ain't got  no more grid connection, even the extension lead to the neighbour is no more...

Hi @Kalahari Meerkat thankfully the residential rate is not quite that it's around R2,50. I don't have first hand for the commercial rate but i hear it's less than a rand.

20kwh/day is around R50 per day. Making it around R1500 for the month. I'm not sure if you were adding the connection fees to your calculations or not. 

For the OP panel efficiency is available from the manufacturer and they have very detailed graphs over 25 years.

Edited December 19, 20232 yr by Buyeye

4 minutes ago, Buyeye said:

Hi @Kalahari Meerkat thankfully the residential rate is not quite that it's around R2,50. I don't have first hand for the commercial rate but i hear it's less than a rand.

20kwh/day is around R50 per day. Making it around R1500 for the month. I'm not sure if you were adding the connection fees to your calculations or not. 

For the OP panel efficiency is available from the manufacturer and they have very detailed graphs over 25 years.

@Buyeye In my area we are very fortunate, on a prepaid meter price per KWh varies from 2.80 to 2.20 ZAR depending on the amount one purchases. No connection fees. 

17 minutes ago, Buyeye said:

Hi @Kalahari Meerkat thankfully the residential rate is not quite that it's around R2,50. I don't have first hand for the commercial rate but i hear it's less than a rand.

20kwh/day is around R50 per day. Making it around R1500 for the month. I'm not sure if you were adding the connection fees to your calculations or not. 

For the OP panel efficiency is available from the manufacturer and they have very detailed graphs over 25 years.

The residential time of use rate in NMBM is around that in Winter peak periods, roughly R8/kWh. That seems about fair to compensate for the costs of running OCGT. Of course the point is not to pay for such mind-numbingly expensive power, but rather to incentivise economic usage, and running from battery storage.

21 minutes ago, GreenFields said:

The residential time of use rate in NMBM is around that in Winter peak periods, roughly R8/kWh. That seems about fair to compensate for the costs of running OCGT. Of course the point is not to pay for such mind-numbingly expensive power, but rather to incentivise economic usage, and running from battery storage.

It thus seems the Namibia $0.36 figure is in US $

51 minutes ago, Buyeye said:

Making it around R1500 for the month. I'm not sure if you were adding the connection fees to your calculations or not

Prepaid, here, if you have that connection, ZAR 40.00 will get you 5 units aka 5kWh, on prepaid there ain't no connection fee, that is some sucker here along the Orange River, if you are on postpaid, you're ending up with that and then some, if your consumption is low your cost per kWh, including all the bulldust fees could even touch ZAR 10.00, maybe some of the farmers that run pivotal irrigation points etc. and probably consume 2 to 300kWh per day, end up paying less per kWh, I'll try and find out, but I ain't holding me breath...

18 minutes ago, Scorp007 said:

It thus seems the Namibia $0.36 figure is in US $

I guess so. Look, it's a very broad statement to say that a panel will produce 2kWh of power per day that's worth $0.36. But let's say your typical panel available these days is around 500W, then 2kWh generated depending on the region and time of year is very plausible, very "average." Add to that the cost of US$0.18 per 1 kWh, since it's the global reserve currency, or around R3.50... all very ball-park generic internationalized wishy-washiness that could probably be true sometimes, maybe, it depends where, but you can't definitively say it's wrong in the context the writer was thinking of when he copied and pasted this marketing fluff from wherever he did.

Edited December 19, 20232 yr by GreenFields

14 minutes ago, Scorp007 said:

It thus seems the Namibia $0.36 figure is in US $

or HK$ or Aussie$, my point was that @Amit Bajpayee was spouting forth nothing of value for the local conditions, which is what I'm assuming the original post was referring to. After all

 

2 hours ago, Amit Bajpayee said:

On average, a solar panel will produce about 2 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity daily.

means absolutely nothing, a 50W panel? a 600W panel? absolute drivel of no meaning and the same applies to $ rates without specifying Zim?Nam?HK?Aus$? and if it refers to anything other than Nam$, which has some meaning to us here in South Africa it again is useless, since none of us can buy electricity in US$ or HK$ or Aus$...

 

15 minutes ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

or HK$ or Aussie$, my point was that @Amit Bajpayee

 

 Zim?Nam?HK?Aus$? and if it refers to anything other than Nam$,

 

My point was after @GreenFields confirmed the unit cost in Nam so it does work out to US $. It cannot be the countries you are mentioning due to the exchange rate to get to 8.00 a unit. 

Edited December 19, 20232 yr by Scorp007

9 minutes ago, Scorp007 said:

My point was after @GreenFields confirmed the unit cost in Nam so it does work out to US $. It cannot be the countries you are mentioning due to the exchange rate to get to 8.00 a unit. 

and again the quoted $ value has no meaning for us in southern Africa, unless it was a more local currency, like Nam$ and the ZAR 8.00 per unit, you guys seem to not comprehend is what is being charged here in the Orange River valley not too far from Groblershoop and Upington on the other side, I guess you can call it agricultural area, which I guess should also have a more trickle down effect in terms of produce being produced here going up, since the Eksdom pricing is, I can only think a predictor of what the rest of the country will end up with not too far down the road...

Still a pretty pointless post by Amit imo...