Very interesting project. But, the creation of solar farms is especially important for countries with a large number of sunny days, but how to be a northern country?
Hey Krezz2017 you are right, the solar radiation is a relevant factor for the energy production in a solar farm. However, when we talk about radiation we have to distinguish between direct radiation and diffuse radiation. The direct radiation is the solar radiation that you get during a sunny day, that is the radiation that travels in a straight line. On the other hand, the diffuse radiation is the radiation that you get in a cloudy day. The diffuse radiation tends to be greater in higher altitude such as in northern Europe. Solar panels capture both direct and diffuse radiation. Although the direct radiation is much more intense than the diffuse one, new materials are being developed to enable more surface area capture in order to maximize the absorption of solar rays in areas with lower direct radiation (setting new efficiency records - have a look at
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/a-new-efficiency-world-record-for-a-perovskite-solar-cell-can-oxford-pv-hit#gs.aXy7Po8). The general idea is that if there's some radiation, new technologies are being developed to capture as much energy as possible. This is one of the reasons for why solar is being successful in countries such as Germany, UK and Netherlands - for example new solar farms were announced this year in UK (have a look at
https://www.vox.com/2018/5/30/17408602/solar-wind-energy-renewable-subsidy-europe). The Solara hardware modules (SHMs) are able to account for production in these new panel systems.
Marco Persico
Solara Renewables & Sustainability Engineer
