Use This Solar Energy Calculator To See Your Farm’s Monthly Savings From Solar Power
How much money will my business really save with solar energy? Give me some numbers!
That’s what every farmer really wants when considering solar power, right? You don’t want some salesman making vague promises or giving you data from a house in Arizona when your farm’s in Georgia.
To help provide answers, the NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) created what they call the PVWatts Calculator. With this tool, you can figure out the actual savings from solar energy you can reasonably expect to get when you install new solar panels — at your specific farm location.
Not a farmer? If you’re responsible for another type of commercial entity, our team can still serve you through Lattice Energy Solutions.
What the PVWatts calculator tells you
The PVWatts calculator will tell you three useful pieces of information — all for each month of the year:
- How much solar radiation hits your location
- The amount of AC energy, in kWh, you can expect for the system you want
- How much money you’ll save in “energy value”
Of course — these are projections. Perfect predictions are impossible. But their solar energy calculator is about as specific as you can get without purchasing solar panels. It takes into account the most important factors, including:
- Your location, and the weather that comes with it
- The size of the system you want to install
- The tilt of your roof
- Which way your facility faces (assuming only one building (or any buildings at al) — you can also re-calculate for others)
- The type of solar panels you’re considering installing
- And much more
As specific as that list is, it also might make you a little nervous. It sounds complicated, and may make you wonder:
Is the PVWatts solar energy calculator easy to use?
Yes and no. The solar energy calculator is easy to use in that the interface is really simple, and they give additional information to help you understand it. But it does require you to know a few things.
When you go to the calculator at pvwatts.nrel.gov, you’ll see this screen:
To access the PVWatts solar power production calculator, you first must enter the address where you intend to install your solar panels. Type it in the space where you see the arrow pointing to the red circle.
They want this for very good reasons, and it’s not about sending you advertising. They need it because the location and orientation of your business will affect the amount of sunlight (solar radiation) that hits your panels.
They also take into account the weather history at your geographic location. Why? Because the amount of cloud cover, how often the sun is out and in which months, affects the amount of solar radiation you receive.
So type in the address where you’ll be installing your solar panels. The next screen shows you the location you entered. Make sure it’s correct on the map. Then, click the arrow on the right, which will take you to the actual calculator. (see red circle and arrow below):
How to use the PVWatts solar power calculator
Now you’re ready to use the actual solar energy calculator and get your numbers for monthly solar radiation, AC energy your solar panels will produce in KwH, and energy cost savings at your location.
You should see the following screen, which is the only page you have to complete:
On this screen, the NREL has entered default values for all these fields. We’re going to take you through each one to help you understand what they mean, and how to fill it in.
DC System Size
This will play the greatest role in the numbers you get from the solar production calculator. Agricultural solar power systems can vary quite a bit in size, ranging from around 20kW up into the MegaWatts range (1 MW = 1000 kW).
How do you know how big your solar power system should be? Eventually you’ll need to talk with an expert. But if you look at your company power bill, you can see how many kilowatt-hours you’re using each month.
A 1kW solar energy system means it produces 1 kilowatt of energy per hour — of sunlight. So in southeastern states like Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, and Mississippi, you get a lot of sunlight. If you average 8 hours of direct sunlight per day, then a 1kW solar system will produce 8 kWh of energy per day. Multiply that by 30 and you get your kWh per month.
Here’s a simple formula you can use:
x kW system * hours of sunlight per day * 30 = approximate kWh per month
If you look at your company’s current power bills, you might want to do this in reverse to find out how many total kWh you need to produce. If you want to produce 300 kWh of solar energy per month, then divide that by 30 to get your kWh per day. Then divide that by the average hours of sunlight per day. That tells you about how large a solar power system you’ll need to generate free electricity from solar.
Module Type
Here, you have just three choices — standard, premium, and thin film. “Standard” is the most common type of solar panel used in the industry — polycrystalline silicone, with efficiency of about 15% (though it’s advancing higher with new technology). “Premium” would most likely be monocrystalline silicon – more expensive but also more efficient, usually 20% or higher. Thin film is a different kind of technology, usually cheaper but not as durable.
This affects your output because of the efficiency. More efficient means more power output for the same sized system.
Array Type
You can choose between fixed, roof, and several types of trackers. Trackers cost more money, but these are solar panels that adjust their position throughout the day to maintain maximum direct sunlight as the sun’s position changes in the sky. So trackers are more efficient, but more expensive.
Most commercial businesses will choose roof-mounted panels, but sometimes ground mounted works better depending on shading, amount of land, and other factors. For now, choose the one you think you’re most likely to go with.
System Losses
This is the most complicated part of the solar production calculator. To adjust this number, you click on the “Loss Calculator” button. The NREL has provided default values for all these metrics. For now, just use their values and don’t change this number.
We’ve created another whole article on how and when you can adjust these values.
For now, the best ways to lower this number (which is good) are to install microinverters or power optimizers.
Tilt
Geometry time! Get your protractor!
See How much would you save?
Tilt is the angle of your solar panels compared to the ground. So, panels lying flat on the ground (or flat on a flat roof) would have a tilt of 0o. Panels standing straight up and down (which would be silly) would have a tilt of 90o.
So, most roof-mounted panels usually have angles between 20o and 40o, depending on the ‘pitch’ of your roof and the latitude of your business location on the earth. Why? Because the higher up in latitude — the closer to the North Pole — the more your panels have to be tilted to receive the most direct sunlight.
To use an extreme example, in Alaska, the sun is at a very low angle in the sky most of the year. So if someone in Alaska wanted solar panels, they’d have to tilt them at a much higher angle than most other places on earth need to do. It’s all about maximizing direct sunlight.
This again is why some people install trackers. As the sun’s position in the sky changes — and not just by day, but by season — the tracker keeps the solar panels directly in line with maximum sunlight.
You’ll notice the PVWatts solar energy calculator uses a default tilt angle of 20o. If you don’t know what your tilt will be, just leave it at that.
If your roof is flat, you’ll probably end up tilting your panels a bit to capture more direct sunlight, so sticking with 20o is probably still okay.
If your roof is tilted, you can go measure the “rise” and the “run” of your roof with a tape measure.
Just go outside and measure a length along the horizontal of your roof (the “run”). Then, from the end point of the run, measure up vertically until you reach the roof itself. In other words, you’re making a right triangle, and you’re measuring the horizontal and vertical sides. The roof itself would be the “hypotenuse,” if you remember your geometry, but you don’t need that number.
Then, use the table below (the same table shows up if you click the “i” on the PVWatts calculator), and calculate your rise/run to find your tilt. And again — this assumes you’ll be laying your panels flat on your roof. If you ended up angling them differently than the pitch of your roof, that would adjust this number. But you’d only do that if it would lead to collecting more direct sunlight, which would make these numbers work out more in your favor. So this is a “worst-case” scenario.
Azimuth
Tilt referred to the angle of the panels from the ground. Azimuth is the angle from the sky — the bird’s eye view.
Why does this matter? Same reason. The sun rises in the east. So an east-facing solar panel will get more sunlight in the morning, and a west-facing panel gets more in the afternoon.
A perfectly south-facing solar panel has an azimuth of 180o. For northern hemisphere houses, this is ideal. But if you don’t use trackers, it’s not that big a factor. Facing west is 270o, and east is 90o. The table below shows the values for other directions.
If you’re not totally sure, just eyeball it and estimate the direction your roof faces (if you’re planning on roof-mounted panels). Again, if you’re off by 10o, it’s not going to matter much.
DC to AC Ratio
Click the “Advanced Parameters” section to see three more metrics, including this one.
The DC to AC ratio is power output — a larger system increases the ratio — and the cost. The typical range is from 1.10 to 1.25. For really large commercial systems this number can be higher.
The PVWatts solar energy calculator assumes a 4 kW system and a 1.10 ratio. (See the DC System Size section above for more about the size your system might be), which is in line with a common residential system. If you have a commercial business or a large farm, you’ll probably be looking at a minimum of a 15 kW system, perhaps much larger. But that doesn’t mean this ratio will change.
To get a higher number usually costs more, but it also depends on orientation (azimuth and tilt), and on the location of the business.
Unless you have technical data saying otherwise, just leave it at 1.10 for now.
Inverter Efficiency
The inverter converts the DC solar energy into the useful AC current that your power outlets use. Every solar power system must have an inverter.
Each inverter is rated based on its DC to AC conversion efficiency.
The solar energy production calculator assumes a 96% efficiency, but these can range a fair amount above 90%. Like the “loss calculator” we mostly skipped by earlier, microinverters and power optimizers can improve this number, increasing it to 99% in most cases.
Ground Coverage Ratio
If you’re using roof or ground-mounted solar panels, this term doesn’t apply. This ratio only matters if you’re planning to use trackers. If so, consult the technical manuals.
System Type
The simplest one of all for this solar energy calculator — it’s either residential (homes) or commercial (farms and other businesses). Even small businesses should probably go with commercial.
Average Cost of Electricity
This helps determine how much money your company can save with solar power. Look on your electric bill and find your per-kWh costs, and enter it in this field. This rate is what you want to reduce or eliminate with your solar panels.
The solar energy calculator assumes you will recover 100% of your energy costs, but does not include net metering or things of that nature, which some states and cities offer.
Get Your Report!
Once you’ve filled all these values in, get your solar payback report. Here’s a sample of what it looks like. This report is for a farm in Vidalia, Georgia, planning to install a 10kW solar power system.
The solar production calculator gives you three columns, each one broken down by specific months. You can see how much solar radiation should hit your farm’s location. This is generally higher in spring and summer, as you can see, since the sun is higher in the sky and days are longer.
Next, you see the AC energy your panels and inverter are estimated to produce. Finally, you see the estimated cost savings you can expect.
In this example, this farm will save over $2000 per year from their solar panels. It’s worth noting that this number increases over time because your utility rates will keep rising over the years, but your panels will not need to produce more energy. So they’ll save you even more money because you won’t be paying the ever-increasing electricity rates.
You might still have some questions. In fact, we’d be surprised if you didn’t. If you’d like an agricultural solar consultant to come out and give you the most accurate estimate you can get from this calculator, including helping answer your questions about inverters, trackers, and azimuth angles, contact Ag Solar Solutions and we’ll come out. (Run a different kind of commercial business? Contact us through Lattice Energy Solutions.)
