Photography And Half-Thoughts By Mitchell Hegman

...because some of it is pretty and some of it is not.

Saturday, February 25, 2023

Following the Sun

The production of electricity from a solar photovoltaic (PV) array is, obviously enough, dependent on access to sunlight.   Direct, unobstructed sunlight is optimum.  If the array is of fixed design (not tracking the sun), the production of energy on a clear day, if expressed in a graph, will form of a curve that mirrors the very arc of the sun as it climbs and crosses the sky from sunrise to sunset. 

Most PV arrays, including mine, monitor and report data relative to equipment function and energy production.  Among other things, my system can provide a graph featuring power production for the entire day.  The graph is comprised of bars representing fifteen-minute increments.

To illustrate the direct relationship between the sun’s track across the sky and energy production, I am posting a track of the sun plotted through the sky followed by a graph featuring a full day of energy production from my PV array. 

For the sake of making this more interesting, the power production graph I chose represents August 21, 2017.  On that day, a solar eclipse temporarily threw shade across Montana and eroded production on an otherwise sunny day.



Sun Track



PV System Output (With an Eclipse)

Mitchell Hegman

Sunrise to Sunset: (https://sunrise-sunset.org)

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