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Solar and backup power in Kolkata
Kolkata, West Bengal, gets 4.57 peak sun hours a day on average. The dullest month is December at 3.55 hours, 40% less than April, the sunniest at 5.93. That makes it sunnier than 6% of the 63 cities we cover in India.
Sunshine in Kolkata is clearly below its yearly average for 2 months, from December to January. That stretch decides how many panels you need if solar has to keep up all year. Across the year, Kolkata gets 9% less sunshine than the average of the cities we cover in India.
What a home in Kolkata 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, December | 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 | 5 | 4 |
| With air conditioning The family home plus two small air conditioners for 6 hours a day | 5 kW | 14.9 kWh | 10 | 8 |
Your own appliances will differ. Put them into the calculator below, which already has Kolkata's sunshine.
Size your own system in Kolkata
Planning tips for Kolkata
- Size panels for December, 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 Kolkata
- 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
- Jamshedpur 225 km · 4.82 h
- Dhanbad 241 km · 4.78 h
- Ranchi 324 km · 4.75 h
- Agartala 330 km · 4.73 h
- Bhubaneswar 365 km · 4.84 h
- Aizawl 464 km · 4.72 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 22.5626, 88.363; 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.