Do Solar Storms Affect Solar Panels

What happens to solar power when you can t even see the sun.

Do solar storms affect solar panels. A solar storm that hit earth tuesday is now at its tail end experts say. Essentially using any type of inverter generator can provide a large amount of protection against solar storms if you have enough fuel on hand to run it. However this same solar cycle has occurred over millennia so anyone over the age of 11 has already lived through such a solar maximum with no harm. The solar storm is one of the strongest in years and could cause disruptions in satellites affect radio communications in polar areas and even slightly decrease the efficiency of solar panels.

We spoke to our head of solar technologies dr greg wilson to get some answers. You may be surprised to learn that solar storms can affect your emotional health and consciousness. Either way solar flares and cmes are solar events beyond the control of humans. Solar activity is indeed currently ramping up toward what is known as solar maximum something that occurs approximately every 11 years.

The biggest danger in a residential area is a long term loss of power. Thanks to durability standards and tests required by the international electrotechnical commission solar panels are made to perform well even after moderate hail events. A solar storm will mostly affect electric power grids possibly damaging larger transformers. This is not to say that space weather can t affect our planet.

Solar panels wouldn t be much good if even a minor hail storm rendered them useless. But the 11 year cycle is the one that is most associated with the kinds of solar storms that affect the planet. There are others that track other solar fluctuations over longer time periods too. A solar storm or eruption is a massive explosion in the sun s atmosphere which can release even more than 6 1025 j of energy.

So how do hailstorms dust storms and smoke affect your solar panel performance. But the biggest concern experts say would be disruptions to our power grid as a 2011 oecd report pdf on the impacts of solar storms points out electric power is modern society s. In canberra hailstorms battered cars houses greenhouses and solar panels. The 11 year solar cycle is actually a complex beast and it s not the only cycle the sun experiences.