for better view kindly check our report here: https://goo.gl/mtcIRF

Introduction

How can we go far with solar energy? Is it about saving money? Finding alternative resources?

Let's take it a little bit farther to HI-SEAS V, a habitat on an isolated Mars-like site on the Mauna Loa side of the Big Island of Hawaii, relies on photovoltaic panels and solar batteries to power its long-duration Mars analog simulation studies.

How can they know the required number of solar panels needed?

The type? The effect of environmental conditions?

Or can we make it simple and design an APP to calculate and consider all

The variables!?

There are many kinds of solar systems. Some is on-grid connected to the energy distribution network directly which economize the energy consumption and you can sell it to the energy company to have an additional annual income.

And some other systems like off-grid (our target) is not connected to that network but it provides us with electricity to light and run our homes, farms and usual devices

We are already know that, but what we don't know is that:

How many solar panels will I need? What if the weather was cloudy or a dusty, how much energy will I get?

Will you be able to charge your computer or take a hot shower? Let's take it step by step.

How to know the total required energy to run your house?

The average household consumes 11,000 kWh per year. To understand how much power you’ll need, start by looking at how many kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity you use in a year. Most utilities provide you with your total power consumption for the last twelve months on your monthly bill. To offer some perspective, one kWh is 1,000 watts of power being used in an hour. So, if you have 20 lights in your home, and they all use 50-watt bulbs, having every light on in your house for one hour would use up one kWh of electricity.

What's the output power of solar panel?

All solar panels are rated by the amount of DC (direct current) power they produce under standard test conditions. Solar panel power output is expressed in units of watts (W), and represents the panel’s theoretical power production under ideal sunlight and temperature conditions. Most solar panels on the market today have power output ratings ranging from 200 to 350 watts, with higher power ratings generally viewed as being more favorable than lower power ratings.

Does the weather affect the output power of solar panel?

Of course, the next figure shows the rate of output power - in Egypt - of an 11 KW system per year.

How the Weather Affects Solar Panel Performance?

P.S:

What is coming is describing the effect of most common weather conditions, but if you got bored with it you can go to weather calculations and find out how we can use all of this.

“Do solar panels work on cloudy days?” is by far the most popular question.

Before we can understand the effect clouds have on solar panel efficiency, we first must understand what’s important to the smooth operation of your solar panels namely sunlight.

In the simplest terms, solar panels need access to the Sun’s energy which makes the 93 million mile journey to Earth in the form of photons. When photons strike a panel, they are converted into direct current (DC) electricity. After being converted to alternating current (AC) electricity via the system’s inverter, you have useable solar energy for your home.

Clouds:

When it comes to weather, you’re generally always going to have significant cloud cover regardless if there’s rain, lightning, hail, or snow. These clouds effectively reduce the amount of sunlight that can reach your solar panels. Depending on how dark and heavy the rain and clouds can be, your solar panels will likely see a sizeable drop in solar panel efficiency. This is also true for fog or mist, Take, for instance, the example of the blanket and the flashlight. If you’re in a dark room divided by a blanket, and one person shines a flashlight on the blanket, a person on the other side would be able to see the light. Supposing you divide the room with more blankets or a darker, thicker blanket, the person on the other side would see less light. The same principle is true with solar panels. The Sun would be the flashlight, and the solar panels would be the person on the other side of the blankets (clouds).

Temperature:

It seems counter-intuitive to say higher temperatures mean a decrease in solar panel efficiency, right? After all, it’s typically warmer on sunnier days, and you already know that solar panels need sunlight to operate. As bizarre as it sounds, high temperatures do, in fact, lower the power output of your panels because of what is known as a voltage drop. You see, power is the product of voltage and current (P = V x I), so although higher temperatures increase the current (I in the equation), they decrease the rest state of the electrons within a solar cell.

When sunlight (photons) strike a solar cell, it imparts energy to the cell’s electrons. The potential difference between the rest state and the energized state of the electrons is the voltage (V). If temperature raises the rest state of the electrons, there will be a lower voltage, and, therefore, a lower power output.

Fog & rain:

As highlighted by Residential Solar 101, under cloudy and rainy weather conditions, your solar panels drop 40% – 90% depending on how dark and heavy the rain and clouds are. Now, if we’re to look at fog – know that your solar panels will still work. For example, the amount of power you’ll generate depends on the thickness of the fog; if the cloud cover is at its worst, your panels might produce only 5-10% of the energy they normally do, but a thin layer of fog has much less impact on solar energy output. Even if you live in an area with lots of foggy days, what really matters is how much sunshine your roof receives over the course of a whole year, not on a given day.

Snowstorms, hail & hurricanes:

Typically, it’s strongly advised that you choose a spot on your roof that is least affected by snow – though, we understand that during a snowstorm, this could virtually be impossible to avoid. Don’t worry – as many solar panels are dark enough to retain heat that the likelihood of snow melting off them is much quicker than you’d think.

Can my solar panels survive hail? Hailstone hit at speeds of up to 120 mph rarely translates as a solar power system killer, as long as the module’s frames don’t collapse and glass fragments don’t damage the cells. Most solar panels are tested to endure a direct hit from a hail stone 1" or smaller at 50+mph.

And for the hurricanes, solar manufacturers make sure that they design solar panels to withstand high winds. If you live in an area that’s prone to hurricanes, your insurance company will require that you have “hurricane proofing” for your solar panels. Also know that should any damage occur, solar manufacturers have warranties and you should have homeowners insurance to help with any repairs, as needed.

Here are more examples of potential panel efficiency changes:

-Cloudy & raining – 40% – 90% drop in efficiency depending on how dark & heavy the rain & clouds are.

-Heavy fog – 15%-20% drop in efficiency.

-Light fog – 8%-15% drop in efficiency.

-Age of the panels – 0.5%-1% drop per year.

-Dirty panels – 1%-5% drop in efficiency.

Weather calculations:

Now we understand the effect, let's go to how to calculate this.

All the previous weather conditions now are variables to get factors, and all this factors will be multiplied to the power output of the solar panel by using various equations that are function of temperature, pressure, etc.

And that leads to our main point

Final product:

Now you understand the solar energy, why we are trying to improve it, and all what we discussed before, but the point is:

Do you have to know all the calculations to know the number and type of the solar panels you should use!?

Do you have to do all the mathematics – that we avoided to mention in the report – to determine how much energy you can get of your solar panels depending on your country and weather!?

What about HI-SEAS V?

So, the answer is you won't calculate anything, all what we discussed before is just to make sure you understand how you can do it by your own but we already designed 2 applications. The first one is an IOS application that:

1. Calculates the output power depending on the type of solar panel that you want.

2. Shows you the power you have after calculating all the type, location and weather loses.

3. Helps you to plan your power consumption according to your solar system and Appliances

4. Provides you with your location, today's temperature, pressure and wind speed.

5. For HI-SEAS V crew, it provides them with charts showing their power consumptions so they can predict their current consumption.

The second application is a desktop application for people who don't have IOS operating system, designed to help you plan your power consumption as the IOS APP

we hope you find this report useful, for more information kindly check references and links below.

References:

• http://news.energysage.com/how-many-solar-panels-do-i-need/
• https://www.wholesalesolar.com/solar-information/how-to-save-energy/power-table
• https://www.lgenergy.com.au/calculator/suburb/carpendale-qld/4344
• http://www.solarreviews.com/news/how-the-weather-affects-solar-panel-performance/
• http://www.residentialsolar101.org/do_solar_panels_work_in_the_rain/
• http://hi-seas.org/
• https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g0gf1awqqaumyqt/AAB1G07PaBYjUnOYnXOLx9eua?dl=0
• http://pvwatts.nrel.gov/
• http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pip.2788/full
• http://www.nss.org/settlement/ssp/