While south-facing panels reach their
peak production around midday, an east-west configuration provides
a more balanced energy production throughout the day. Solar panels that face
the east generate energy in the morning hours, while
west-facing solar panels reach their peak in the afternoon and early evening. This pattern aligns better with household energy consumption,
where demand is higher early in the morning and later in the day than around
midday.
The alternative
orientations are already profitable and are expected to become even
more profitable in the future. South-facing solar power systems will
increasingly need to be switched off due to negative electricity prices caused
by the surplus of supply in the afternoon when there is relatively
little demand for electricity. Most consumers use energy in the
morning and evening. It is precisely at those times, when demand is higher and
electricity prices rise, that you want to generate electricity with your solar panels.
Feeding back into the grid then occurs at high prices or you avoid expensive purchases. With a
spread across different orientations, it becomes slightly
easier for consumers to consume more electricity directly and thus achieve a higher percentage
of self-consumption.’
Economic advantage
Although individual solar panels in an east-west configuration generate on average 10 percent
less energy than optimally south-facing solar panels, the financial return is often higher because the kilowatt-hours are much more frequently consumed directly, thereby avoiding feed-in costs. Additionally, simply more solar panels can be installed, which leads to more output outside the
summer months and thus more generation in the months when it is really needed.
North: surprisingly
profitable. Surprisingly, even
solar panels placed to the north can be profitable. They produce about 50
to 60 percent less energy than southern solar panels, but can still provide a good
solution in specific situations. North-facing
solar panels capture a lot of diffuse light, especially in countries with a lot of
cloud cover like Belgium. They produce very evenly throughout the day and can be a
good complement to south-, east- or west-facing installations to achieve a
constant energy production throughout the day. With regard to
grid capacity, the economic logic of non-south-facing panels is becoming
stronger. The future of solar energy no longer seems to be primarily focused on the south,
but on a smarter orientation that better aligns with both
the energy prices and the challenges of the modern energy transition. South-facing
solar panels remain very profitable when self-consumption is high in the
middle of the day.
Vertically
oriented solar panel installations also offer advantages, especially for
seasonal distribution of energy production. A south-facing
vertical solar panel has a good yield in winter, for example. The
sun is low at that time, and a solar panel must be almost upright to
receive the best sunlight. Because the more perpendicular the
irradiation, the higher the yield. A vertically installed solar panel facing south is therefore particularly
interesting in winter. Not only because of the yield, but also
because we collectively have a shortage of solar energy during that period.
Not only for south-facing walls, but also for east and west-facing walls, good results can be achieved.
When the sun rises in the summer from the east and
is still relatively low in the morning hours, the yield of such a vertical
east-facing solar panel is very good, and in the evening this applies to vertical
west-facing solar panels.
Strategy: as much
roof area as possible. The best strategy is to utilise as much
roof area – and where possible also walls – as possible. Solar panels have become cheap,
so it is not a problem to sometimes have to throw away your surplus on summer days.
It would therefore be good to fill your roof as much as possible.
Even on the north side, if you have a north-south roof, you can achieve a good
yield. We must realise that solar power has a lot of value, but
less value in the middle of the day in summer. The value of solar power from non-optimally oriented solar panels actually increases, as they produce solar power outside of
peak hours.
If you have a
home battery, then the generation from the south-facing solar panels is of course a less
significant problem.
