Solar panels not producing as much as last year

[Anonymous]

All spring, my panels have been producing less than last spring—particularly surprising because last spring her had a panel that disconnected. I checked the per panel output for may 2022 compared to may 2021 and it’s a noticeable difference. For instance, panels that produced 45-46 lwh last may only produced 38 kwh this May. Has this been an unusually cloudy spring? It is something wrong with my panels? The pattern seems true across March, April, May. I did do better in Feb of 22 than Feb of 21, though.

[Anonymous]

This is my 4th May with solar and the first two years were pretty close in production (just under 1 mwh total) and then last year had a bump up from that and this year is a little below that, but that means this year is noticeably below last year.

Looking at April, 2021 did slightly better than 2022 which did a little better than 2019 which did noticeably better than 2020.

For February 2020 and 2022 are almost the same and noticeably better than the other years.

[Anonymous]

And for March this year is also noticeably lower than last year (with 2020 also noticeably lower than 2019)

[Anonymous]

Thank you to PP! I’d love any other anecdotal info. Sad that last year was a bump and this year may be more typical for future production.

[Anonymous]

Last year our panels produced more than this year or 2020 in March, April, and May. February this year was better than last year (think last year we had some snow in February, which can really tamp down production if it sits for days, as January this year showed). June 2021 better than 2022, but 2019 and 2020 were better for June production here. I think it’s sort of random — how much sun, when, etc. — but the pattern at my house seems similar enough to yours that I wouldn’t worry too much about it.