Month: November 2020

Every site is completely different; hence the cleaning frequency varies from one site to the other. The five essential factors that affect the cleaning schedule include your location (how often does it rain?), the nature of business( for instance certain manufacturing units release exhaust making frequent cleaning a necessity), the tilt angle of your panels (steeply tilted panels tend to stay relatively cleaner than horizontal PV arrays), the amount of wind-blown dust and pollen, electric rate (higher electric rate makes it more worthwhile to clean your panels), and the cost to clean your panels.

Solar panels get dirty primarily from wind-blown dust and pollen. A small amount of dirt may cause an output decline of up to 5 percent. However, very dirty panels especially near agricultural lands or in areas that do not get rainfall can cause an output decline greater than 20 percent.

Solar panels are made of highly excitable, conductive materials. When the sun’s rays hit the solar panels, the reaction creates direct current (DC) electricity.

Since most businesses use alternating current (AC) electricity, your solar-generated DC energy will pass through an inverter to become AC electricity. Then it flows through your property’s wiring and behaves just like the power you’ve been using your whole life.

If you are planning to go solar and you do not have a lot of space on ground to install solar panels, you can turn your roof into a solar powerhouse. Few factors to consider when you go solar are: Orientation, shade, material, age, space and pitch.

Rooftop material and age of the structure are the two major points of concern i.e. what types of rooftops are best suited to support the installation of solar panels?

How do we currently produce energy? By burning fuels! Only 1 percent of the electricity of the world is being produced by Solar Energy. Which means that the remaining 99% electricity gives a byproduct of excessive emission of carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the atmosphere.

While the major sources of pollution are thought to be transport and industry manufacturing, burning fossil fuels (specially coal) to produce electricity accounts for more than 33% emissions in the atmosphere.

Solar energy works by converting the sun’s energy into electricity that can be used to power your residential or commercial appliances. But how does this happen? Read ahead because we will be answering all your questions about solar energy in this blog.

Sun, which is one of the biggest sources of power in the solar system, releases tiny packets of energy which are known as photons. They travel all the way from the sun to the Earth and the number of photons released in one hour are enough to satisfy the global energy needs for one whole year. Well that’s a lot. However, not all these photons are utilized and converted to electricity. Power generation from solar panels in Pakistan is still a relatively recent concept. However, awareness regarding this technology is spreading rapidly and there has been a huge growth in the usage of solar power over the past few years.

The State Bank of Pakistan, in light of the global initiative to reduce the impact of climate change has been taking a few steps. One of these includes the “State Bank of Pakistan’s financing scheme for Renewable Energy Projects”. This scheme was made public mid of 2016 and started to fully be used from 2017.

The scheme has two major advantages for Pakistan; it not only addresses the foreign exchange deficit problem of the country but, it also holds the potential to defer significant capital investments required in the aging electrical network. Additionally, it has two categories:

1. system sizes ranging from 1MW to 50 MW
2. system sizes ranging from 4 kW to 1000 kW

Going solar not only saves up a substantial chunk of your energy bills but is also the biggest step any organization can take at being more environmentally conscious. However, with the decision comes the daunting task of deciding on a solar financing option.

Fortunately, going solar is affordable by making an informed decision about the best funding options; be it buying or leasing. Some key factors to consider when deciding on ‘cash purchase’ as a financial option are as below;

In continuation with the “buying vs leasing” debate, the second financing option is a ‘solar lease model.’ On paper, for many organizations solar leasing sounds quite lucrative as it allows them the opportunity to upgrade to a solar system without a prior investment.

Hence, some key factors to consider when deciding on ‘solar leasing’ as a financial option are as below:

Dayab Hussain
Manager Special Projects

I am excited to share some of my experiences from my visit to Intersolar Europe.

June 20th, 2018:

Intersolar Europe had just commenced at the Messe München exhibition center in Munich Germany. As a solar engineer, the magnanimity of being here at the most cutting-edge showcase of solar innovations and trends was not lost on me. I was brimming with excitement. The opportunity to interact with leading exhibitors from nearly 50 countries was invigorating.

Renewable energy technologies, especially solar, have seen rapid growth over the past few years to improve energy security and access and to mitigate climate change. Countries like Germany have long since jumped on the solar bandwagon and are now producing a third of their electricity from solar power. Interestingly, Pakistan is a perfect candidate for solar power generation, considering the high levels of solar irradiation we receive. Yet, solar only contributes a meager 1% to Pakistan’s energy mix against a potential of 2.9 million Megawatts according to Pakistan Alternative Energy Board.

Investment in solar technology can improve energy access, create jobs, increase income, improve trade balance and contribute to industrial development. The socio-economic benefits of solar are astounding and its’ impact can be maximized with sound macro-level policies.