How much energy can solar panel produce?

Question

I am doing a project on solar panels.

All information given has to be accurate.

May I know how much energy can monocrystalline, polycrystalline, amorphous, vaporware solar panel produce? I also want to know more about solar panels. For example, how did Americans use solar panels during autumn and winter? Is the solar panel used in their everyday life?

Why can't S'pore use solar panel even though we experience hot weather all year round?

Answer 1

perhaps I can answer u why solar panels are not that popular in sg....Im now doing a major project to bring in power into buildings....1 80W solar panel costs abt S$700 and it takes 4hrs sunlight to charge to give 320Wh of power....with the installation of charge controller, solar cells and inverter (for ac power) the whole setup costs about S$2k.....and for a 320Wh of power usage...in sg...its about using 13Wh to last 24/7...so if you want a 320Wh 24/7 you need several more panels and that will also increase the cost of charge controller and solar cells that comes in thousands of dollars for initial setup whereas it only cost 7 sg cents to operate per hr and S$50 per mth.....and you need at least 100mths = 4 years or more to break even the cost.

Answer 2

While Engineer is correct, allow me to interject a point that may not be well known. Research is being done to produce a solar electric panel that will use Infrared light, or "heat" energy to produce electricity as well as the sun light that panels now require for producing electricity. Once these are developed, and are commercially available, then even Singapore would profit from "solar" electric panels.

Answer 3

The link below is a very good place to start. It has a lot of information and there are many good links as well.

Monocrystalline cells typically convert about 15% - 22% of the light that hits them to electricity. The variations depend upon details of the construction of the cell.

Polycrystalline cells typically convert between about 10% - about 15% of the light to electricity, again cell design and also silicon quality affect the energy output.

Amorphous silicon cells have production values near that of polycrystalline silicon.

Vaporware is a sarcastic name for PV technologies that are under development but not yet shipping.

Solar panels are used all year around. They are only efficient if they receive direct sunshine and therefore produce very little power under cloudy conditions or if shaded.

Interestingly it is the light that produces electricity and heat actually will interfere with electricity production so solar panels used in very hot climates are less efficient than sunny but cold climates.

Is S'pore Singapore?

Singapore is very hot all year around because it is locate on the equator. I have never been there but I have been told that it is also very cloudy in Singapore. It that is true then Singapore will not be a very good place for solar panels.

Answer 4

Yeah, the conversion of the solar panel is not very high. Therefore the electricity produced is not much.

Since Singapore is a tropical country, it is a good idea to use solar panel. However, bare in mind that land in Singapore is very limited. Low efficiency of the panel means increase in land usage.

At different time of the day, when the sun angle to the panel is different, the amount of energy produced is different. It is better if the panel could be inclined but on a cloudy days horizontal mounted panel are more efficient. Do look up on insolation variation.

This is may help in determine the angle of the sun to the panel: susdesign.com/sunangle

Another thing is that the solar panel efficiency will decrease when the panel's temperature is above 50 degree centigrade.

Electricity produced from the panel will have to be store for night time usage. This will involve load management and other types of energy storing devices. eg. water can be pump into an elevated reservoir and release during the night for night time usage by using pelton wheel.

Integrating solar power energy to the national grid will cause losses. Solar panel produces dc current and it needs to be converted into ac before it can be transported to anywhere or integrated into the national grid.