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by testing22321 419 days ago
I’m in a very snowy mountain town in Canada.

In 12 months the 7.8kw system has generated smack on 8Mwh.

While the very short days, snow and cloud cover reduce output a lot, it still makes power year round.

1 comments

That is very surprising. Looking at the statistics collected from the Swedish grid (https://svensksolenergi.se/statistik/elproduktion-fran-solen... ,first graph), the winter months are close to zero in output. December 2024 were 35 GWH, while May 2024 were 765 GWH. In 2023, December were 14 GWH, while May were 579 GWH

It is not absolute zero, but it kind of close, and there is a large period that storage would need to fill. For Sweden it is also the inverse for the demand spike, with winter demanding more energy than during the summer.

My 7.8kw system made 1000kwh in July, and 100kwh in December.

November and January were 200kwh each, and October and February were 400kwh each.

So it’s very low in the worst of winter, but it comes back very quickly.

Looking again at Swedish number, the average house need around 200kwh per month for the period of December to April, and about half that for the rest of the year (https://hemsol.se/wp-content/uploads/Elforbrukning-villa-02....). If your maximum is 1000kwh your battery need for the winter will be around 125-150 kwh, not counting capacity for harsher winters or degrading panels.

Using the power walls examples above, you then need around 10 units.