Solar and backup power in Wa
Wa, Upper West, gets 5.54 peak sun hours a day on average. The dullest month is August at 4.85 hours, 19% less than April, the sunniest at 5.97. That makes it sunnier than 100% of the 16 cities we cover in Ghana.
Sunshine in Wa is steady through the year: even August, the dullest month, is within 15% of the yearly average, so a system sized for it is barely bigger than one sized for an average month. Across the year, Wa gets 11% more sunshine than the average of the cities we cover in Ghana.
What a home in Wa needs
Three example homes, each covering a 12-hour daily outage with a lithium battery and solar panels to recharge it. Panels are 450 W. The month-with-least-sun figure is what keeps you covered all year.
| Home | Inverter | Battery | Panels, August | Panels, yearly average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials 6 lights, 2 fans, a fridge, TV, Wi-Fi and phone charging | 1 kW | 2.6 kWh | 2 | 2 |
| Family home Essentials plus a freezer, more lights, a laptop, a desktop and a water pump | 3 kW | 7.4 kWh | 4 | 4 |
| With air conditioning The family home plus two small air conditioners for 6 hours a day | 5 kW | 14.9 kWh | 8 | 7 |
Your own appliances will differ. Put them into the calculator below, which already has Wa's sunshine.
Size your own system in Wa
Planning tips for Wa
- Size panels for August, not for the yearly average. A system sized on the average falls short in the dullest weeks, which is when you most need it.
- Dust, heat and shade cut output. Keep panels clean, leave air space under them, and avoid anything that shades them between mid-morning and mid-afternoon.
- Ask installers for the inverter's continuous and surge ratings, the battery's usable capacity and chemistry, and the panels' total watts. Compare those numbers with your plan rather than the package name.
Guides for planning in Wa
- Peak sun hours and your dullest month
- How many solar panels you need
- Lithium vs lead-acid batteries
- Questions to ask an installer
Nearby cities
- Damongo 132 km · 5.27 h
- Tamale 196 km · 5.27 h
- Bolgatanga 198 km · 5.5 h
- Nalerigu 239 km · 5.5 h
- Techiman 282 km · 4.95 h
- Sunyani 303 km · 4.71 h
Sunshine: NASA POWER climatology, ALLSKY_SFC_SW_DWN, monthly averages for 25-year Meteorological and Solar Monthly & Annual Climatologies (January 2001 - December 2025), at 10.0607, -2.5019; retrieved 2026-11-09. Peak sun hours equal kWh of sunlight per square metre per day on flat ground; tilted panels usually collect a little more.