Could these clouds help deliver more energy to your panels?
In a world so full of BS, skepticism pays a rather huge dividend, but this is real….
Was it yesterday, good friend and excellent PE Bill Rogers sent me a picture of his Outback Display, and a higher KW reading than he’s ever seen before.
His note follows:
Guys – I’ve just seen the highest peak output ever from my solar array.
I’ve read about what’s called the cloud edge effect, and now I’ve seen it for myself. The edge of a cloud can focus the sunlight somehow and cause higher than normal output. Yesterday was a mostly cloudy day, but the clouds would periodically break up like you see in the second pic.
That apparently sets the stage for the edge effect to manifest itself. I saw a high of 6150 watts on my 5400 watt rated system. By the time I grabbed the camera it was down a bit but still very impressive. It lasted for several minutes. The clouds were just the right size and shape and moving at just the right speed I suppose. Very interesting phenomenon. Glad I saw it for myself.
Power in well above what the owner sees on a crisp cloudless day
Another note arrives:
Panel specs are attached. The temp gradient for Pmpp (power at maximum power point) is -0.45% per DegC. What I observed was about 14% above the STC rating on the LOAD side of the charge controllers (not the panel
side.) For the power increase to be entirely due to temperature, the panel temp would have to drop a little over 31 degC or 88 degF. I’m NOT asserting that temp had no impact – it very well could have – it simply can’t account for all of it
Here’s an explanation of the effect:
But this isn’t the end of the story, here’s a link where there’s some discussion about the cloud edge effect, and even a report of fuses being blown.
Other links that discuss cloud edge effect..
http://solarhomenews.wordpress.com/2009/09/03/edge-of-cloud-effect-may-not-be-what-you-think-it-is/
http://forums.energymatters.com.au/solar-wind-gear/topic1507-10.html
Interesting huh? I learn something new every day..
GB
A Petri dish makes it so easy to understand this very important cloud problem!! My My
At least I better understand the theory, next time I see a very high reading, I will suspect this as a possibility..