Even in MO, I noticed winter solar output was very low. Same thing as getting vitamin D. In winter, you ain’t. We would get some charge between 10-2 at best in winter but it wasn’t near as strong as 10-2 from mid Spring to mid Fall. Of course Summer is the best since the days are longer. Then you could get a good charge from 9-3. Longer if you had panels that track with the sun. Overcast but not rain clouds in summer are better than sunny days in winter.
Sun angle matters and Minnesota is pretty far from the equator.
Then there’s wind. Maybe 10% of the planet is good for wind. There’s a Scottish guy who builds his own turbines and happens to live in a region of Scotland that has good wind. The Scoraig peninsula. He builds them himself because it’s the only way to get a decent ROI.
Water is the best. 24/7/365. Not ocean wave generators.
I’m in MO and I’m putting in a small solar backup system.
Just enough to run LED lights, a computer, fans..etc.
I’m installing quite a few panels as there will only be a few hours a day to charge the LiFePO4 battery bank (600ah) so they will be getting hit with a charge current of 200+amps. I tested that and they do warm up a bit, that will shorten their lifespan some but it is what it is. I am building my own switching charge controller as the off the shelf chargers are overpriced and under-performing.
I do have enough power to run my microwave or the washing machine... those are a must! My inverter is 3kw and pure sine wave....looks better on the scope than the power company waveform does, even under load.
My panel efficiency is about 22% and I get a bit less than 6amps from each of the new panel. I have some old panels I salvaged from a Dept of Energy array in NM but they are old and I only get 3.5amps from each of them.