How Many Solar Panels Are Needed for Bitcoin Mining?

For information on South Africa, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, use our resource page.

If your nation is not yet included in our resources, use the Global Solar Atlas to calculate it for yourself.

Round off to 14kw Solar energy can be used to mine Bitcoin, but it is not cheap.

Depending on where in the world you are based and how much electricity your Bitcoin mining setup uses, you will need a certain number of solar panels.

The top mining rigs' wattage draws have already been determined; the next step is to determine how much sunlight (peak sun hours) your area receives so that we can determine how many solar panels you'll need.

There are two ways to determine when the sun is at its strongest in your region.

Use the map marked Global Horizontal Irradiation (GHI) if using the Global Solar Atlas.

Decide how many peak sun hours your region receives right now, and record that information somewhere on a piece of paper.

Basically, we advise against looking into solar-powered Bitcoin mining rigs if you reside in a region or city that is known for being somewhat cloudy (no one is pointing any fingers at England here).

More on that later.

You Can Use This Formula to Figure Out How Many Solar Panels You Will Need for a Bitcoin Mining Rig.

Give you an example, shall we?

Let's imagine you reside in California, in the United States.

The average number of peak sun hours in California per day is 5.2. Simply multiply your results by 30 (the number of days in a month), as we need the monthly peak sun hours for this calculation, not the daily peak sun hours.

5.2 x 3 days = 156 peak sun hours in California.

Let's now divide your monthly energy usage by your monthly peak sun hours.

We are aware that an Antminer S19 consumes 3000 watts, which translates to 72,000 Wh (72 kWh) per day if used for 24 hours. We multiply it again by 31 days to obtain the monthly usage.

72 x 30 = 2,160 kWh per month.

Apply the formula above now.

2,160 ÷ 156 = 13,84

13,84 x 1000 = 13,846 watts.

The number of solar panels you will require must now be determined. To accomplish this, divide the aforementioned figure by the proposed solar panel rating.

We advise using a power rating of 400 watts for your Bitcoin mining setup since most residential solar systems install solar panels with this capacity.

13,846 ÷ 400 = 34,6 panels (round that off to 35).

You must put 35 solar panels on your roof, each of which can generate about 13,846 watts of power, in order to compensate for the energy used in Bitcoin mining.

To mine Bitcoin using solar power, you will therefore require a 14kW solar system.

13,846 watts divided by 1,000 = 13,84kW

This example once more assumes that you reside in California.

Let's try another example, this time assuming you reside in London, England.

2.8 x 30 days = 84 peak sun hours.

2,160 ÷ 84 = 25,71

25,71 x 1000 = 25,710 watts

25,710 ÷ 400 = 64,27 solar panels needed.

As you can probably tell, this choice is simply unworkable. The lack of sunlight makes it impossible to use solar power for Bitcoin mining in London unless you have a lot of land and aren't too concerned about the high cost of solar panels.