Guest Post: Solar Panel Installation in a Cloudy Climate

February 15, 2010 by Brenda
Filed under Energy Suppliers, Featured Posts, Green Living, Guest Posts

The UK isn’t exactly famed for its long, hot, blue sky summers, is it? In fact, it’s not known for its weather at all. And why? Because the weather is largely dull and cloudy. It rarely gets ridiculously cold, it rarely gets ridiculously hot. In fact, the British have decidedly unremarkable weather. This might go part of the way to explaining the, as yet, comparatively poor take up of solar panel installation in homes in Britain. But is solar panel installation worth it in a cloudy climate? Do you get any value?

The short answer is yes. Now of course solar panels will perform at their optimum under a blazing sun and cloudless sky. But you will still get functionality in a cloudy climate. Look at Germany, for example. It is the world’s leading installer of solar photovoltaic panels and has a very similar climate to Britain.

What many people fail to realise is that the UK gets 65% of the radiation that Spain gets and 55% of that you’d experience on the equator. So, although we Brits rarely experience the ‘perfect summer’ weather, we still get more than enough radiation here for solar panels to generate electricity or to heat your water. In the UK, solar panels can typically generate up to 90% of the electricity required to run an average occupied home on a ‘normal weather’ day. A Solar Thermal system installed in the UK can account for around 70% of a home’s hot water needs.

So even though the UK may not get bikini weather and even though we don’t often have need for the sun block, we can power our homes through solar panels. This is because, contrary to popular conception, solar panels use solar radiation – not just direct sunlight.

So for the sake of reducing your carbon footprint and your utility bills (as well as adding value to your home), yes, it’s certainly worth it – even in a cloudy climate!!

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