PV Gap

Shelly Said:

what is the average amount energy produced by a single solar panel per day?

We Answered:

Very roughly, the most common size of a solar panel in professional residential installations is about 200 watts. From there, the amount of energy harvested depends on the amount of equivalent peak sun that the panel gets per day. That number is not the same as sunrise to sunset, because the sun is very much weaker in the morning and late afternoon, even though it may not seem so.

You can get a map of equivalent sun for your area at http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsr… . This map can be either for a specific month of the year, or the year-round average. Choose "flat plate tilted south at latitude" if you don't know what to select.

For example, most of California, Nevada, and Utah have 6 hours of equivalent sun in May. That means during that month, on average, a panel will produce 6 x 200W = 1200 watt-hours = 1.2 kWh of energy each day.