Hi there,
In the process of getting quotes for a 5.5kW south facing array, I had (prematurely) assumed I did not have shading issues (we have had rain for two month), but with the sun being back, I realize the 3 x 50 foot tall skinny palm tree on my neighbor's yard east of me will shade the array in the first 1.5 to 2.5 hours of the morning.
Here is the model of the Palms at time of worst impact: https://1drv.ms/u/s!At3vMAQjaOZLkRL8QLv7HiDE7KYQ
I modelled my house and trees in Sketchup, so I geo localized the model and ran shade simulation for the various days of the year in these early hours to see how bad it will be (controlling that the shadows it gives me for the current date actually matches what I see on my roof).
I positioned the array in a portrait orientation as it seems to allow the array to clear the shade April first. It also minimizes the time during which the shade hits the array. Depending on fire code I may need larger setbacks...
The result can be seen with pictures in the attached file
And can be summarized as follow
In the process of getting quotes for a 5.5kW south facing array, I had (prematurely) assumed I did not have shading issues (we have had rain for two month), but with the sun being back, I realize the 3 x 50 foot tall skinny palm tree on my neighbor's yard east of me will shade the array in the first 1.5 to 2.5 hours of the morning.
Here is the model of the Palms at time of worst impact: https://1drv.ms/u/s!At3vMAQjaOZLkRL8QLv7HiDE7KYQ
I modelled my house and trees in Sketchup, so I geo localized the model and ran shade simulation for the various days of the year in these early hours to see how bad it will be (controlling that the shadows it gives me for the current date actually matches what I see on my roof).
I positioned the array in a portrait orientation as it seems to allow the array to clear the shade April first. It also minimizes the time during which the shade hits the array. Depending on fire code I may need larger setbacks...
The result can be seen with pictures in the attached file
And can be summarized as follow
- 5.5 month with no shadows (Summer Apr-1 to Sep-10)
- 4 month with 2 to 2.5 hours of shade in the early morning on 2/3 of the array coming from the bushy top of the palms. (Sep-10 to Nov-10 & Feb-1 to Apr-1)
- 2.5 month with 1.5 hours of partial shade in the early winter hours (low production), coming only from the tree trunks. (Winter Nov-10 to Feb-1)
- With POs, I am I right to assume the loss would be pretty much directly proportional to the shaded surface
- But If I was to use a solution that does not have Power Optimizers, just a few strings (like 3), roughly how much of the array production would I loose in period B and C.
- In B, am I right to assume almost all of it
- In C where the tree trunks seem to shade about 1/3 of individual panel, would I only lose 1/3 of the whole array?
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