Solar at my workplace

[nowty]

The record for peak solar PV power in the UK was on 22nd April 2021. There is only a small window of opportunity to break the record in Spring, hence we missed out on one last year.
https://www.solar.sheffield.ac.uk/pvlive/

Max daily yield is usually late May / early June in the cooler side of the longest day.

The other interesting thing is the max power is based on solar irradiance 1000 W/m2, module temperature 25 °C and AM=1.5 (atmospheric density).
https://amsolar.com/diy-rv-solar-instru ... nelratings

There are times when the irradiance can exceed 1000W/m2, the cell temp can be cooler than 25 °C and the atmospheric density can be less than 1.5. Also panels usually have a positive tolerance so some panels can give higher outputs than has been badged. So it is possible to occasionally exceed the panel rating, usually after a cold rain shower in late spring.
(nowtyfact for searching)

[dan_b]

Wow, just jumped into the office SolarEdge portal to see we're pushing out 11kW at 10.45am in mid-March! Our panels are only rated for 11.1kW in total and we have "only" a 10kW inverter.
Seems the 3phase SolarEdge inverter can go at least 10% above its rating

[dan_b]

Yesterday was a really nice sunny day.
And a quiet one at the office. No EVs on charge, the studio was dark, so just general background office stuff.

As a result, a lot of electrons escaped back to the grid - still waiting for our Octopus Panel Power export tariff to start, so not getting "paid" for making the local electricity supply a bit greener...

[Mart]

Dan, time to plug in one of those TM3's.

[Moxi]

Surely by now Dan a small battery has got to benefit the business and pay for itself in short order ? sized to manage the building requirements overnight and maybe the weekend for most of the year ? then use the savings to re-invest in more batteries, don't forget that this year the corporation tax has increased and you get a tax benefit for investing in technology that benefits the business so you have a financial incentive to argue the case with others as well as your already exemplary moral compass

Moxi

[dan_b]

Yeah I know - but we were all out on customer calls yesterday!

Dan, time to plug in one of those TM3's.

[dan_b]

It's starting to look like that isn't it - even with us going on the export tariff I'm sure we could make an additional benefit with a battery - as you say if it's enough to get through the quiescent demand overnight and potentially over the weekend that would be great.

More fun research to do

Surely by now Dan a small battery has got to benefit the business and pay for itself in short order ? sized to manage the building requirements overnight and maybe the weekend for most of the year ? then use the savings to re-invest in more batteries, don't forget that this year the corporation tax has increased and you get a tax benefit for investing in technology that benefits the business so you have a financial incentive to argue the case with others as well as your already exemplary moral compass

Moxi

[dan_b]

What a lovely sunny spring day it was yesterday - great for the workplace array - check our our generation/consumption!

[Moxi]

Nice profile Dan, lends itself to underpinning the business need for a small or medium sized balancing battery to smooth some peaks out

Moxi

[nowty]

I think the opposite, it shows why the business case for a battery is not as strong as I originally thought. Almost all the power is self used within the generation window.