1 kilowatt system how much kwh per year should it produce? Anyone got figures?

Question

Any ideas, trying to budget for my new solar cells and looking to see if they are a good investment...

I'm in sydney by the way, and interest rates aren't helping me decide, lol, I need at least 6-7% return on investment.

And the cheap price of electricity isn't helping either...

Answer 1

This is simple research, find out your average sunny days/year, and the average hours of sun/day. Then it's just multiplication.

Answer 2

When I was calculating the power requirement for an off grid house, I looked at all the constantly running appliances, then added the appliances.  Multiply this answer by 1.2.  This is how much power you should shoot for in battery back up.  Now look at the average number of hours with full sunlight then subtract two standard deviations.  Multiply this by .707.This the the real amount of sunlight available to the panels with 97% reliability if the panels are fixed, not rotating with the sun.  If it rotates with the sun , use 0.9.  

Look at the most consecutive days with less than average sunlight.  This gives you how much battery you need.

Now you know how much consumption you have and how much reliable sunlight you have.   This sets up your panel requirements.  Take cost of the panels (amortized over the term and loan rate) and divide by the kilowatt hours.  Take that and divide by the number of years in life expectancy of the panels.  At 16 cents per Kilowatt hour you should be saving money with panels.

I would also look into a 20 KVA wind mill generator.

If you Have both systems wired into a Grid tie.  Excess energy is sold back to the power company and you don't need batteries.

Answer 3

Please keep in mind the life expectancy of the system. It needs to not only pay back , plus interest, before it must be replaced, but it will also loose its efficiency as it ages.

To date, there are no solar power systems that can accomplish that.

They are improving, but have yet to be economically practical.

Answer 4

If it can produce 1kw every hour, then you have a 1 kwh system.  That's 10 100w light bulbs on for one hour.