High Shine V Solar Eclipse today – solar panel cleaning is so important for efficiency of solar energy that is gained from them.
While millions of people watched the solar eclipse today, two lesser known events are also taking place in a rare triple astronomical phenomena.
The solar eclipse is being joined by the supermoon and also the spring equinox. An equinox occurs when Earth’s poles are not tilted towards the sun, while the supermoon is due to the moon being slightly closer to Earth. So basically doe this mean the moon will look MASSIVE!? The supermoon does not make the moon seem noticeably bigger in the night sky. In fact, the difference is almost impossible to spot with the naked eye.
Also, for this supermoon, it is occurring during a ‘new moon’ – the opposite of a full moon, which means the moon is mostly dark, with the sun on the opposite side, which also explains how the eclipse took place.
But throughout the year, there are two moments where the tilt of Earth aligns so that it is perpendicular to the sun – normally around 20 March and 22 September.
During this time, called an equinox, the length of a day and night on the planet are roughly equal.
Today’s super moon, meanwhile, occurs because the moon’s orbit around earth is not entirely circular.
WHAT IS A SUPERMOON?
A supermoon occurs when the moon is both ‘full’ and at its closest point to Earth.
Astronomers call this phenomenon a ‘perigee moon,’ which describes the full moon that occurs when the moon is at its closest point to Earth each year.
Perigee marks the closest point a body reaches as it orbits around its host object such as Earth, while apogee marks the farthest point from its parent body.
Almost every orbit has an apogee and perigee because orbits tend to be elliptical rather than perfectly circular, so even Earth has an apogee and perigee around the sun.
It occurs when a full moon or a new moon coincides with its closest approach to Earth. The moon’s distance from Earth varies between 222,000 miles (357,000km) and 252,000 miles (406,000km).
This accounts for a difference in brightness of about 30 per cent when the moon is closest and furthest away.
So you could make this up, here was Lee Burbidge of High Shine estimating the cost of cleaning 209 solar panels for a farming business in Market Harbrough during a solar eclipse, of course we both stopped to take a look and observe the spectacle.
A WORD ON SOLAR PANEL CLEANING
A word on solar panels if we may……… no good during eclipses, ha ha ha. Only joking, but we would like to say that High Shine offers a great service in solar panel cleaning. Please remember that regular cleaning of solar panels is paramount in ensuring that the full strength of the captured sunlight is able to reach the cell. Studies show that dirty solar panels could reduce the cell’s efficiency by as much as 20% !!
Dirt that accumulates on the surface of the solar panels absorb the light and therefore prevents it reaching the surface of the cell, just like dirt on a window pane stops you from seeing through the glass. In order to maintain peak preformance , it is essential that solar panels are cleaned on a regular cyccle to remove this layer of dirt.
HOW OFTEN DO SOLAR PANELS NEED DOING?
In my experience every 6 to 12 months. This particular job I was bidding on today where the solar panels are situated on top of a large storage barn on a dusty farm in Market Harborugh, the customer requested every 12 months. We decided to try that, but I think he is about right for his site.
He used to clean them himself but having a busy farm he thought he would get the professionals in.