“Do solar panels work when it’s cloudy?”

I hear it all the time. In fact, more than a third of people¹ we spoke to in our research believe solar panels only work when it’s sunny.

I wanted to test the myth properly by meeting Mark and his family in Bolton for the second stop on The Great Green Challenge on Tour. Bolton isn’t known for its tropical sunshine, so it was a great opportunity to find out how well solar panels work in real homes like Mark’s, and prove that solar panels can perform anywhere in the UK – regardless of the weather.

Meeting Mark in Bromley Cross

I met Mark and his family in Bromley Cross. Mark and his partner Amanda have always been passionate about sustainability, and when they found their forever family home, they wanted to make sure they were making it as energy efficient as possible for years to come. That’s when they started to think about solar.

Before taking the leap, Mark did his own research, which showed that solar panels only need daylight to generate electricity, not direct sunshine. Knowing that solar panels will produce electricity even on overcast days gave Mark the confidence to put his research to the test.

What years of living with solar actually taught him

Mark told us that when their solar panels were temporarily removed during roof repairs last year, their household energy bills doubled during that period – proving just how much of a difference their solar panels had made over the years.

When I asked Mark why he thinks more people aren’t making the leap to solar, he suggested there might be a lack of awareness of how much difference they can make. He also thought people may have concerns about how much electricity solar panels can actually generate, or that the cost of installation will never be recovered.

These concerns were clearly reflected in our research:

Those concerns, as well as the assumption that the UK isn’t sunny enough for solar panels to work efficiently, explain why there’s still a lot of uncertainty out there.

Why people still aren’t sure about getting solar panels

So, if the answer to “do solar panels work when cloudy?” is clearly yes, why is there still hesitation around solar?

A few reasons might be that a lot of people still:

But real homes like Mark’s tell a different story. Solar panels across the UK still generate electricity year-round using the daylight we get, not the sunshine we wish we had.

Final takeaway

Solar panels don’t need sunshine, they need daylight. And as my trip showed, that’s something the UK has plenty of - even on a cloudy day in Bolton.

The panels on Mark’s roof don’t wait for perfect weather. Instead, they turn everyday daylight into electricity, which then turns into household savings².

If you’re looking for more information about how solar panels could work for you – even on cloudy days – we’ve got more on our blog.