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Output of solar panels depending on slope and azimut

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bigrockcandymountain:
For off grid, as Adriaan pointed out, south facing makes the most sense.  You will never be short on power in June (at our location 50 deg North) but you will be quite short in december, when east and west facing panels make the least amount of power. 

For a fixed array, the old rule of thumb is south facing with angle matching your latitude.  That gets you set not bad.

 I find it better to have a 2 position tilt. 65 deg winter 20 deg summer. 

Net metered grid tie is a whole different deal, and then the summer output maximising setups might work out better. 

Adriaan Kragten:

--- Quote from: brandnewb on March 27, 2024, 05:37:58 AM ---
--- Quote from: Adriaan Kragten on March 25, 2024, 02:12:48 PM ---The calculations of the output have been reviewed because I took a too high peak power of a solar panel size 1 * 1.65 m. The peak power is reduced from 400 W up to 300 W.

--- End quote ---

Dear Adriaan,

So in general; if one has far too much power generated by the solar panels oriented in a east-west back to back setup in summer times. with as goal generating as much as possible during winter times.
even after you have refined your study a bit based on the new peak values.

Would you still conclude that an optimal south facing orientation of the panels, even though now needing more spacing between rows, will benefit the power generation during winter times?

If that is the case then I need to find some new and inventive ways to reposition more than 22 panels as my roof is already maxed out :( (I now have 44 panels in a east-west back to back configuration)

One thing I have been considering is to have floating arrays of panels. But especially during winter time the sun is rather low so I will need to have them float outside of my property to have full sun. But I guess no one minds as then we have little to no boating activity during those times anyway. But then that damned freezing that could happen. Now I have to think of a raft type that can deal with that.

{1}reason I ask is because I am trying to transition away from grid connected as even though netmetering has been extended for some time by our government again. electrical utility providers are actively trying to circumvent the loss of revenue by employing really nasty tricks like for people with smart meters. Some if not most of them are now being taken from behind by now netmetering will be done on a monthly basis rather than annually.

I am ecstatic I have always resisted the installation of a smart meter. And please believe me they tried! hard!!{/1}

--- End quote ---

If you want to put solar panels on an existing house you have little choise about the slope and the azimuth. But for as new house or a new solar park, I think it is best if you optimise the positioning for the month December. If the solar panels are grid connected, the fee which you recieve for one kWh is much higher in december than in June. Maximising the output in December means orientation to the south and a large slope of about 60°. My calculations show that then the loss of energy in summer because of the large slope is less than the gain in winter.

Recently a new solar park was made in my town with east west orientation and a slope of 15°. I have calculted that the output in December is only about 10% of the output in June. If all solar panels would be orientated south at a slope of 60°, the output in December is about 1/3 of the output in June and so the grid imbalance is much lower. Another disadvantage of a small slope is the sensibility of damage by hail. Today I read a story that thouthends of solar panels were damaged is Texas by golf ball large pieces of hail. This was not only caused by the small slope but also because of the too small thickness of the panels ralated to the other dimensions.

MattM:
High slope angle also lengthens the life of roof materials.

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