1. Ipsun Solar Library
  2. All About Solar Policy, SRECs, and Incentives

How many SRECs will my solar panels generate?

Multiply your installed kW by 1.2 to find your estimated amount of SRECs

Several places in the USA have an SREC market. They usually allocate a Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) for every MWh a system produces. So the question becomes, what is the estimated power production of a solar energy system? There are many variables that influence the power production including but not limited to:

  • Geographic location that (see NREL map below)
  • Tilt of the solar panel
  • Solar panel degradation rate over time
  • Ambient Temperature (the colder the better the panel produces)
  • Dust, debris built-up over time
  • Shading
  • Inverter type: string, optimizer, micro-inverter

Ipsun Solar installs solar panels in and around Washington DC. Our area receives about 4kWh/sq m / day. 

NREL solar irradiance map of the USA

Rule of Thumb

At Ipsun we use specialized software to calculate precisely how much a solar energy system is supposed to produce, but we also have a rule of thumb for our area: Multiply the installed kW of your system by 1.2 to get your the annual SRECs you can expect.

Example

  • Commercial system: 500 kW x 1.2 = 600 SRECs 
  • A small residential system of 10kW x 1.2 can expect 12 SRECs a year

Conclusion:

Multiply the installed kW by 1.2 to get your expected annual SRECs