Consider the following drawing:
I take it that solar panel's generated electricity would be the same whether it's installed in scandinavia or africa, as long as it faces in the same direction? or am i stupid
i'm asking this because everywhere i hear how "solar panels have higher efficiency near the equator", but that's just not true. Maps such as these are common on the internet:
And they suggest that solar energy around the equator would be twice as available as on northern latitudes, but actually that's just the solar irradiation if the panels weren't inclined, but in practice, they were likely will be. So they receive similar amounts of power.
edit: so, it's the cloud cover. got it; thanks :D
The suns rays go through less atmosphere near the ~~poles~~ equator. Not to scale, but should show the overall concept.
"The sun rays go through less atmosphere near the poles"?
I think you meant to say sunlight goes through more atmosphere near the poles, but otherwise nice quick sketch diagram 👍
I had so much fun making the image I totally the words
The whole thing!
You can actually see this in action. At sunrise or sunset, it is possible to look directly toward the sun. That's because more light is scattered at that angle and so it is less direct. At noon, the same sun will sear your eyes.
Please note whilst the jist of this diagram is correct, it's not drawn properly. The sun is so far away and much larger than the Earth. This means sunlight is about as parallel as it can be once it gets to Earth. So the lines aren't going through the atmosphere at different angles. The angle is the same, but since the Earth is a sphere it will travel through more atmosphere before hitting the ground.
Helpful diagram. Thank you!
isn't the atmosphere transparent for most of the light, though? (except UV, but that gets filtered out even at the equator, so it's the same everywhere again)
The atmosphere is mostly transparent; see the table near the bottom of this Wikipedia page for some numbers. At an angle of 45 degrees from vertical you're getting 91% of the energy, and at 60 degrees you're getting 81%. A bigger problem is seasonal variation: during the winter at high latitudes you get very little energy. My city, at around 47 degrees latitude, sees the Sun peak at less than 30 degrees with under 10 hours of daylight for a quarter of the year. A solar array isn't as useful if it produces almost no power for much of the year, especially when people need a lot to keep warm.
It isn't perfectly transparent. It has dust, moisture, and other particles in the air that block or deflect a portion of the light.
thank you, i'll consider this the best answer as it names both dust and moisture as reasons why sunlight is blocked.