Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Follow the Sun: a Migrant's View of Solar
Power
“But tomorrow may rain, so I'll follow the sun…” Paul McCartney sang in the 1964
Beatles for Sale
album. That's also what we hoped to do aboard
Namani
: to follow the sun
by leaving temperate latitudes for the tropics in fall, dropping out of the tropics with the
onset of hurricane/cyclone season, and repeating the pattern the next season.
With that itinerary in mind we felt confident that our solar panels would have no trouble
keeping up with our power consumption. They seemed a bit out of place in Maine, our
home base in the US, but surely they would deliver ample power in the sunny tropics,
right?
“Yes, but…” would be our answer, and the 'but' is a strong one. With the experience of
three seasons in the tropics behind us now (first in the Caribbean, then in the South Pacif-
ic), we suggest that sailors look at the data before jumping to conclusions. You might be
surprised to find that the same solar panel that delivers 100 Watt-hours (Wh) of electric en-
ergy per summer day in the Chesapeake Bay will only provide 60Wh per day around
Christmastime in the Virgin Islands.
So let's look at how the numbers that define effectiveness of photovoltaic solar panels play
out for cruising sailors. The data that follows will provide some helpful benchmarks for
getting the most out of your on-board power plant, whether you're outfitting a boat for ex-
tended cruising or sitting in an exotic anchorage, trying to squeeze out a few more Amps to
keep the beer cold.
We'll start with a basic example to understand the variables at play for a boat spending the
northern hemisphere summer in Chesapeake Bay (between 37° and 38° North) then migrat-
ing to the Virgin Islands in November. After spending the winter months at about 18° north
latitude, it returns to the Chesapeake Bay at the onset of hurricane season in May. Figure 1
shows the key variables for this example, plotted along a one-year timeline.
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