Solar Powered iPhone 6 - Solar PV Panel iPhone Charging

Apple has filed eight solar patents over the last few years and also hired a thin films engineer with experience in the solar industry.

So will the Apple iPhone 6 include solar power or a solar panel for the back of the phone? We'll have to wait for the announcement from Apple but we can guarantee that the solar panels for a iPhone 6 will have to be a lot smaller than the ones in the photo below!



Solar Powered iPhone 6

Sprayable Solar Panels?

The University of Sheffield and University of Cambridge have also created solar cells that you can spray onto surfaces including windows, car roofs, and buildings. The aim is to provide low-cost solar technology for developing countries and could drive more innovative applications.

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/10-ways-alternative-energy-is-about-to-change-the-way-tech-gets-powered/#.

Month and Year Solar Output Compared - Variation Between Same Months of Different Years

I've now setup pages to show the comparison for each month year by year so you can see the difference in solar electricity produced for the same month in different years.

You can see the difference between electricity produced each year and how much solar electricity was generated compared to previous years. Each month is available individually

January February March April May June July August September October November December

You can also see a comparison of solar PV output generated year by year



Month and Year Solar Output Compared - Variation Between Same Months of Different Years

What is Best Direction for Solar Panels to face in the UK to get maximum output?

It is commonly thought that the best direction for solar panels to point in the UK is due South. However some recent research has apparently shown that the best direction for generating electricity from your solar panels is actually west as it captures more the afternoon sunlight.

I'm not sure how valid this research is and whether it will be backed up by further studies but it certainly ties in with our PV solar panels producing well above estimated amounts of electricity over the last 3 years. With the natural variation of sunlight you would need 2 sets of solar panels in the same location with identical setups to be able to compare outputs.

Our solar panels face SSW and 3kWp of solar PV Panels have generated over 3000kWh of electricity each year compared to the estimates of around 2400kWh per year.



Best Direction for Solar Panels to face in the UK to get maximum output

Sunny Boy inverter has no display visible or bluetooth connection?

If your Sunny Boy inverter has no display visible or bluetooth connection then the inverter may have locked up or frozen. It may be a very simple fix which is worth trying before calling a solar panel installation engineer to repair it   Sunny Boy inverter has no display visible or bluetooth connection? For some reason our Sunny Boy 3000HF inverter had frozen and was not generating any electricity. Quickly turning off and on again didn't resolve the problem. In the end the solution to the problem we had was to turn the inverter off for a longer time - around 20 minutes so that the inverter was completely powered down. Once this had happened the Sunny Boy inverter was switched back on and came back to life producing electricity as normal.

Solar Panel Output 2013 Annual Review - Summary of Solar Electricity Production

We have now had our solar panels operating for two full calendar years and some interesting details are emerging. Despite 2013 starting much worse than 2012, with very dull and cold weather at the beginning of the year, the overall electricity produced was higher than in 2012 with some new records set.

Best month solar electricity production: 479kWh (July 2013)
Best day solar electricity production: 21.6kWh (April 2013)

With the colder April and May than is usual the effect of temperature on solar panel electricity production became very apparent which with the lengthening days gave the impressive daily totals for April 2013.

Overall for 2013 the solar panels generated a total of 3095kWh of electricity and were operating for 3972 hours in total. This compares to 2996 kWh and 3635 hours for 2012.

View the full yearly and monthly solar panel electricity production stats here