Solar Energy Watts Per Square Foot

The earth has 197 million square miles of surface which includes the surface of the oceans.

Solar energy watts per square foot.

Number of solar panels per square foot of roof space. Radiation data for solar water heating and space heating systems are usually represented in british thermal units per square foot btu ft 2. Below are cost estimates based on home size. Each solar installer has sophisticated software that can spell out your house s exact power needs while looking at historical weather patterns roof angles and other factors to tell you how many panels you ll need and how much power your they ll be able to generate per square foot.

Home the estimated electricity consumption is 700 kwh. The solar energy reaching the earth is 12 211 gigawatt hour. How much energy does a solar panel produce. This is typical for residential solar panels being sold in the us in 2020.

At this point you can use the calculation procedure described in the previous section. When dividing these values you obtain 0 35 kwh per square foot assuming 0 35 kwh for a 2 000 sq. For the sake of example if you are getting 5 hours of direct sunlight per day in a sunny state like california you can calculate your solar panel output this way. However most installers estimate solar costs by the amount of energy needed at 2 53 to 3 15 per watt before any tax credits or incentives.

Direct estimates of solar energy may also be expressed as watts per square meter w m 2. How to calculate your own solar panel estimate for those wondering how we estimated those numbers for energy consumption and required number of solar panels here s the breakdown. For a 300 watt solar panel with dimensions 64 inches x 39 inches 1 61 meters squared or 17 31 square feet the peak instantaneous electricity production per square foot at stc is 14 58 watts per square foot. This is measured in watt hours by scientists.

System size kw square footage needed for low efficiency 16 square footage needed for medium efficiency 18 square footage needed for high efficiency 22 5 kw. It may surprise you to learn that more than enough solar energy per square foot hits the earth to provide a solution for the entire energy consumption of the earth. 5 hours x 290 watts an example wattage of a premium solar panel 1 450 watts hours or roughly 1 5 kilowatt hours kwh. Notice that this number is an average value and for a very high sun the numbers can be a little higher.

We also assumed that the average household consumes about 10 400 kwh per year and the panels we re using are 250 watt solar panels. The cost of solar panels to power your house are 4 to 10 per square foot. Thus the output for each solar panel in your array would. Sunlight has to go through the atmosphere and we find that the average clear sky sun provides around 893 watts m2 which is about 283 6 btu ft2 hr or very close to 100 watts per square foot.