Solar Is Hot! Solar is Cool!
When the Sun Shines, Do Solar Panels Perform Better on Hot or Cold Days?
As Director of Support at Geostellar, I get a lot of questions from people curious about how solar panels work. I’ll be taking some of the most common queries and providing answers here on Solar Club.
One frequently asked question comes from homeowners expecting their solar panels to really kick into gear on a hot summer day. They notice the production is lower than on day with a similarly clear sky in the winter when it’s cold. With the sun lower in the winter, why would production be higher?
It might seem counterintuitive, but the warmer your solar panels the less efficient they become.
When solar manufacturers test the efficiency of their panels it is typically done at approximately 77° F (25° C). During the hotter months, the efficiency of your panels can be reduced as much as 25%. So, for those of you living in cooler climates thinking that solar may not be right for you, think again! Keeping those modules cool and in bright sunny locations can give you more power than those in lower latitudes with typically warmer weather year-round. And for those of you in areas that stay warmer throughout the year. You too are a great candidate for solar! Factors such as the overall time the sun is high in the sky or the level of cloud cover and haze in your vicinity affects the overall power output.
So whether your weather is the warm or cool you can always benefit from converting sunshine into electricity for your home. There is really no wrong place to take advantage of all the wonderful photons our sun provides. The technology in solar panels gets better every year as the solar industry learns ways to squeeze more power out of every square inch of the solar panel’s surface. Don’t get left behind stuck with ever increasing bills of “dirty” energy when you have a free source of power rising in the East and setting in the West every single day!
