Capacity Factor Solar Panels

Both systems will generate the same amount of power in the same geographic location.

Capacity factor solar panels.

Capacity factors are a comparison of net generation with available capacity. California set two renewable energy records last week. Energy information administration form eia 923 power plant operations report. With a solar score of 84 phoenix has a very high solar energy potential.

Energy information administration form eia 860 annual electric generator report and. This means that if a solar panel has a capacity factor of 25 it s average energy output will be 25 of what it was designed to achieve e g a 100 watt solar panel with a capacity factor of 25 has an average energy output of 25 watts. In the real world most solar panels tend to have efficiencies in the 16 19 range though some manufacturers like mission and sunpower have higher end panels that have efficiencies exceeding 20. The capacity factor is simply the ratio of energy generated over a time period typically a year divided by the installed capacity.

A post i wrote a little over two years ago concluded that solar pv capacity factors in the us ranged between 13 and 19 with an average of around 16. In practical terms a solar panel system with a total rated capacity of 5kw kilowatts could be made up of either 20 250 watt panels or 16 300 watt panels. To illustrate how location impacts capacity factor consider a 10 kw system installed in phoenix az vs. Displaystyle frac 4 200 000 mbox mw h 365 mbox days times 24 mbox hours day times 2 080 mbox mw 0 23 23.

Recently however the us energy information agency published a table showing an average capacity factor of around 28 for utility sized pv plants in the us in 2015. By comparison states in the southeast such as georgia and north carolina had substantially lower pv capacity. Utah s 0 9 gw of solar pv plants ranked second with a 29 0 capacity factor. The capacity factor for solar panels varies between 15 and 40.

The most solar power ever flowing on the state s main electric grid and the most solar power ever taken offline because it wasn t needed. Recently however the us energy information agency published a table showing an average capacity factor of around 28 for utility sized pv plants in the us in 2015. 4 200 000 mw h 365 days 24 hours day 2 080 mw 0 23 23. California s utility scale solar pv plants totaling 9 4 gw or 37 of the national total ranked third with an average capacity factor of 28 4.

This post looks into the reasons for this large difference and also addresses the question of whether the eia estimates can be used to predict future us solar pv output.