The Solar Carport at Patagonia Produces About 55 KW of Power
Power Power Power - 360 Panels of Power Producing Mania
That solar awning post stimulated this contribution by photographer Jody Kasch - a solar carport. This is at the Patagonia Company in Ventura, California. On Renewable Energy.com, it says the carport uses 360 Sharp Panels each producing 185 watts of power and produces 66.6 kw of power. However, that did not adjust for panel or inverter efficiency. Adjusting for panel and inverter efficiencies, this provides about 55 KW of power. This is enough to power about 55 homes.
What does that mean? Lets say you turn on a 40 watt light bulb. This means it takes 40 watts of electricity to make that light bulb light up. If you had one solar panel on your house that was rated at 185 Watts - you would lose about 30 watts because most solar panels are 88% efficient and most power invertors (so you convert the DC power from the panel to AC power to run your home lights and appliances) are 95% efficient. This leaves you with 155 watts of power you can use to turn on those light bulbs. That is three 40 watt bulbs and one 15 watt bulb.
And It Shades the Cars To Boot
Now you need to be continuously providing those light bulbs with the 155 watts of power to keep them running. This happens as long as the sun is shining on the solar panels. When the sun goes down, the solar panels stop producing electricity.
So what is Patagonia doing with their 55KW of power? How are they storing any excess they create? What are they doing at night? These are all things you need to consider when creating your own solar energy electrical system.