Photovoltaic panels, popularly known
as solar panels, tout their economic advantages, especially in business
establishments where there is a high consumption of electricity. It is
cost-efficient and provides a lot of advantages such as cutting overhead costs
that allow companies to save money from electricity utility bills. Business
owners will also benefit from other economic advantages like increasing the
value of the property which is an excellent investment if the place of business
is temporary and you are planning to sell the building for profits.But another
concern that you have to take into consideration is how many solar panels are
sufficient energy to power up the workplace and keep it running even in the
event of a power interruption. In this article, you will discover the number of
photovoltaic panels your business needs to avoid any inconveniences in the
future.
How Many Solar Panels to Power Up
Your Business
In hindsight, the number of solar
panels deeply relies on the coverage of the business operation in terms of area
and average power consumption. But if you want to determine the actual number
of solar panels you will need, there is a computation that you can use to
achieve your goals when it comes to cutting operational budgets to some extent.
It will also depend on the specific regulations of a region. For example, the
solar energy computation below is in accordance with solar roof tiles south africa energy policies.
● For a medium-sized business complex,
it is estimated that such establishments are averaging approximately 25,000
kilowatts annually. So that means, they are consuming about 70 kilowatts in a
day
● Now, you have to determine how much
solar energy each photovoltaic panel can generate and divide them to the
approximate power consumption in a day
● In addition, you have to know the
amount of sunlight the PV panels are exposed to UV rays
● You can also use this particular
information for both large and small-scale enterprises
Computation Example
Below is an example of how you can
compute the number of solar panels your business will need to power up the
establishment efficiently—
● As mentioned, a medium-scale
business consumes about 70 kilowatts per day. And if the PV panels are directed
to the sun for 6 hours, then you have to divide 70 kWh by 6 hours which equals
approximately 11.67 kW
● However, you have to bear in mind
that the solar energy the PV panels accumulate is direct current (DC), and we
have to convert them to alternating current (AC). You can convert DC to AC by
dividing the figure we come up to 80% which is the approximate percentage of
efficiency of AC over DC. Thus, dividing 11.67 kW by 0.80 will give you about
14.59 kW
● Lastly, divide the 14.59 kW by the
amount of energy each solar panel can generate. For this example, let's say
that each PV panel generates about 250 kW. So that's 14.59 kW over 0.25 which
equals about 58 solar panels
Conclusion
Getting the right number of solar
panels as much as possible for your business is highly important in order for
the equipment to provide you with the sufficient energy that your establishment
will need to keep it fully operational. As you see, you can compute the number
of solar panels your business will need by taking into account several factors
which include the floor area of the establishment and the average consumption
of your business. But if you are a startup and planning to install solar panels
in the process, you have to do your research and specifically look for the
average power usage in your region. Once you have calculated the number of
solar panels, you go over the figure for allowance and to prevent any possible
inconveniences.