Ireland's best counties for solar What power you can get based on your location in Ireland

Location and solar efficiency

When it comes to solar panels in Ireland, there's no doubt about it — location does have an effect. Other individual factors may be more significant, such as roof orientation, pitch or shading. But location is something lots of people ask us about here at PureVolt Solar, and that's why we have collated the research on this page.

Roughly speaking, the further south and east you live, the more efficient your solar panels will be (all other things being equal). So the sunny southeast lives up to its name, with solar installations there consistently leading the pack. For example, solar panels installed in Wexford produce 9.2% more than the national average. By contrast, solar arrays in County Donegal would produce the lowest output, at 7.6% below the national average.

On this page, you can see the annual solar generation for identical systems across Ireland, and how that compares to the national average of 884 kWh / kWp. As you will see, the difference is significant but still small enough that solar panels are likely to be a worthwhile investment, wherever you live in Ireland. For more information check out our guide to the cost of solar panels Ireland.

The counties of Ireland Ranked from best to worst for solar output

As you might expect, the further you go to the south and east, the more power output you can get from your solar panels in Ireland. If you live in Wexford, you can expect your solar panels to be 18.1% more productive than an equivalent solar array in Donegal.

County solar comparison in numbers

Why are the counties so different?

Three main factors play into the regional variations in solar power output across Ireland: latitude, altitude, and local climate.

Latitude

How far north or south you are has a significant effect, with further south being more productive. This is because counties in the south of Ireland receive more direct sunlight and longer daylight hours throughout the year, which boosts solar energy generation potential compared to counties further north.

What do the numbers mean, exactly?

There are a lot of numbers above, as well as some assumptions. Let's look at them one by one to see what they all mean.

kWp (kilowatt-peak) of panels

kWp is a measurement of the maximum theoretical output of an array of solar panels. Imagine you took a set of panels, and put them in perfect lab conditions. The power they would produce in those ideal conditions is the kWp rating.

This is the value most solar installations are quoted in. When someone says "I've a quote for a 4kW system", what that means is a 4 kWp system. Equally, if someone says "I'm getting 440w panels installed", it means those panels would produce 440w under ideal lab conditions.

In the real world here in Ireland we never quite get those perfect conditions. But, in the middle of a blue sky summer day, you can get to 90%-95% of this theoretical maximum.

About us

This is a free resource commissioned and funded by PureVolt Solar Ireland. The Eco Hub has been developed by our green energy experts in collaboration with the engineers, scientists, and data specialists from our sister company SquareFish .

On pages like this one, we try to share our passion and motivations for a greener Ireland by presenting clear, factual information without getting on a soapbox. We hope this page is useful for you. Please get in touch to let us know if we can make it better :)