We were struggling in May and early June, not being able to produce enough solar power to meet our needs. The months were sunny enough on many days yet we were operating with a deficit, pulling more out of the battery over a 24 hour period than was put in during daylight hours from the solar panels. The maximum we were able to produce from the solar panels in any hour was 3.4 kW, about 40% less power than was produced in 2024 at a similar time of year (same daylength and sun angle).

The solar array on the roof of the energy building and how the solar panels look in the mornings before they are cleaned. There is also a second, ground-mounted array behind the building facing the sea.

A bundle of new connectors on the solar panel wires.

On June 11th a technician from Viridian came to inspect our solar system and I wanted to report on what a difference it has made.  He found two dead panels which were not side by side. Since the panels are connected in pairs, the dead panels rendered their partners also ineffective so in essence we had four dead panels.  He rearranged two panels and took the dead ones off the roof.  He also replaced all of the connectors as many were failing/corroded. They had been replaced about 5 years ago but the conditions are extreme on the roof being so close to the sea. The panels are reaching the end of their life span and will need replacing in the near future but with the improvements made we are now producing only 20% less power than was produced in 2024 at this time.  It has made a big difference and on sunny days were are now able to operate without a deficit and have the batteries reach 100% more often. It is great to have one less thing to stress over.

Below is a graph from the OpticsRE software package for June 16 2025, the last day it was consistently sunny. The good things to point out are:

• coloured circles on the upper right – more was put into the battery than taken out
• 14:00 hrs – 5.7 kWh were achieved (green bar – solar production, light blue – energy taken from the battery, dark blue – energy put into the battery)
• 16:00 hrs – the batteries reached 100% charge! (the top line is % SOC – stage of charge, the bottom line is battery volts)

Wildlife notes

Nothing unusual occurred today. Tomorrow I plan to write about the pigeon guillemots.

Facility notes

I spent some time cleaning and organizing the Tank Shed. Finding a bag labelled assorted cotter pins, I decided to free up more counter space by mounting the pair of new tires for the cart. It was straight forward but having not done it before it was satisfying and for once, something took less time than expected.

• cleaned solar panels
• replaced tires on the cart
• continued cleaning the Tank Shed

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 2
• Private: 0

DND

Lots of warships on the water today, even a submarine, all part of TRIDENT FURY, an international maritime training exercise. Good thing I didn’t count ships sailing by today.

Weather

Rain ending in the morning. Skies overcast, clearing by mid-day. Winds veering to WNW and strengthening to gale force in the afternoon, subsiding to fresh breeze by evening. Daytime temperatures: low 12, high 14.