March 2012 breaks Solar PV Generation records

As April begins with a new daily high, we now have a compete month of data for March 2012 which has beaten even the wildest expectations.The total generation for the month from our 3kWp panels was 314kWh so an average of over 10kWh per day. This total generation was obtained despite a very poor, cloudy start to March but the sunny days in the second half more than compensated for the slow generation at the start.

The predicted output was 210 kWh using SAP calculations and 243 kWh using PV-GIS so the actual output of 314kWh was over 50% higher than the SAP2009 estimate. This number is slightly higher than the number shown on the website link below as our inverter reads slightly lower than the generation meter.

Our solar PV installation consists of 14 x 235W Sungrid panels with Sunny Boy 3000HF inverter.

It will be interesting to see how this pattern continues over the rest of the year. The South East of England is currently suffering a drought so further sunny days may be good for Solar PV but not for water resources. I guess the ideal weather is sunshine during daylight and rain overnight.

Solar power generation during the drought

The monthly statistics for the generation of electricity from the panels is shown on the website below:

http://solar.rainham-kent.co.uk/

This compares the peak generation, maximum daily output and times that the panels were generating electricity by month.