5 ms·

Sun Cable's 10GW in the Northern Australia is also ground mounted: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/sun-cable-5b-solar-mb1185/ https://www.solarquotes.com.a

Sun Cable's 10GW in the Northern Australia is also ground mounted: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/sun-cable-5b-solar-mb1185/ https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/sun-cable-5b-solar-mb118...

moffkalast 4y ago
Both talk a lot about time and material saved, which I guess is also important, but neither gives any figures as to how much efficiency will be lost. Isn't the whole point of trackers and optimal angle calculations that regular panels are kinda crap if not pointed directly at a 90 degree angle to incoming light? If I recall right some installations have almost got half more output by going from fixed to trackers. This would be even worse than fixed at the optimal angle...
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
  When I was installing my 6.6kW array, I was pissed that I got the southern orientation of 1 half of the array off by a few degrees. Turns out I was going to lose about 1% of production. Out of interest, I looked up what the drop would be if I had actually installed them all, at a 30 degree slope, facing north. 15% !!!
- Mistletoe 4y ago
  Googling shows gains of 25-35%. Dual tracking adds another 5-10%. I can really see how just placing more of these simple flat ones would be more economical than a complicated racking and tracking system. https://news.energysage.com/solar-trackers-everything-need-know/ https://news.energysage.com/solar-trackers-everything-need-k...
- dreamcompiler 4y ago
  It's all about the cosine of the angle between the panel's normal and the direction toward the sun. If that angle is 0, the cosine is 1 and you get maximum efficiency. The error angle has to increase to 60 degrees before the cosine decreases to 0.5. Meaning you can tolerate a lot of slop before you lose half your output. Trackers were a big deal when PV panels were 10x or 20x more expensive than they are now. Back then every bit of added efficiency was worthwhile. Not so much now. Edit: It's more complicated than this: You have to compute two cosines (azimuth and elevation) and average over both days and seasons, but the basic point is still true.
JoeAltmaier 4y ago
Australia, Texas. In common: lots of sun, no snow. Here in Iowa we have different issues. E.g. we're at 42' North lattitude. So we want at least that much tilt to get (any) good sun exposure.

Sun Cable's 10GW in the Northern Australia is also ground mounted: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/sun-cable-5b-solar-mb1185/ https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/sun-cable-5b-solar-mb118...

moffkalast 4y ago

Both talk a lot about time and material saved, which I guess is also important, but neither gives any figures as to how much efficiency will be lost. Isn't the whole point of trackers and optimal angle calculations that regular panels are kinda crap if not pointed directly at a 90 degree angle to incoming light? If I recall right some installations have almost got half more output by going from fixed to trackers. This would be even worse than fixed at the optimal angle...

PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
When I was installing my 6.6kW array, I was pissed that I got the southern orientation of 1 half of the array off by a few degrees. Turns out I was going to lose about 1% of production. Out of interest, I looked up what the drop would be if I had actually installed them all, at a 30 degree slope, facing north. 15% !!!
Mistletoe 4y ago
Googling shows gains of 25-35%. Dual tracking adds another 5-10%. I can really see how just placing more of these simple flat ones would be more economical than a complicated racking and tracking system. https://news.energysage.com/solar-trackers-everything-need-know/ https://news.energysage.com/solar-trackers-everything-need-k...
dreamcompiler 4y ago
It's all about the cosine of the angle between the panel's normal and the direction toward the sun. If that angle is 0, the cosine is 1 and you get maximum efficiency. The error angle has to increase to 60 degrees before the cosine decreases to 0.5. Meaning you can tolerate a lot of slop before you lose half your output. Trackers were a big deal when PV panels were 10x or 20x more expensive than they are now. Back then every bit of added efficiency was worthwhile. Not so much now. Edit: It's more complicated than this: You have to compute two cosines (azimuth and elevation) and average over both days and seasons, but the basic point is still true.

JoeAltmaier 4y ago

Australia, Texas. In common: lots of sun, no snow. Here in Iowa we have different issues. E.g. we're at 42' North lattitude. So we want at least that much tilt to get (any) good sun exposure.