Hi, New here and I have a question about solar panels and shade

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Steve92004
Steve92004 Registered Users Posts: 1 ✭
edited June 2017 in Solar Beginners Corner #1
I'm in the middle of having a leased system put on my house
I'm in the desert and will get tons of blazing sun daily.
It's an optimized power system with two strings consisting of 34 panels
The guys just finished installing the stand-offs, the inverter and a new electric panel
I noticed that there is shade from a palm tree that is going cover two full panels
I'm not sure how bad that is going to be, but they've already drilled into my two week old roof
What do you think?
Thanks Steve!


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  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,439 admin
    #2
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    Will you cut down the trees?

    What kind of gt system do you have? Central inverter (one or two) or micro inverters (one for every panel or two)?

    How many hours power day will the panels be shaded?

    It is not good to have shading of your panels. You can lose quite of bit of power when there is any shading. (Array configuration can affect the amount of power loses and which panels are shaded)

    It also possible that the bypass diodes in the shaded panels could fail sometime in the future.

    - Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
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  • Lumisol
    Lumisol Registered Users Posts: 374 ✭✭✭
    #3
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    If it's palm trees shading the panels, chances are that they are in a neighbors yard and not his own.
    Wasn't there any pre-installation inspection of the site before the work started? 
    Was the company interested in you having the best possible system or were they just concerned with selling you a bill of goods?
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  • Photowhit
    Photowhit Solar Expert Posts: 6,003 ✭✭✭✭✭
    #4
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    With 2 strings I would assume a central inverter, and when shaded that whole string will be much less productive! Output perhaps 10-20% or an unshaded string. It should be easily measured with a clamp meter if they have separate inputs into the inverter.

    I would agree that it's a poor design and if there was no room on unshaded areas of the roof, micro inverters would have been a better option.
    Home system 4000 watt (Evergreen) array standing, with 2 Midnite Classic Lites,  Midnite E-panel, Magnum MS4024, Prosine 1800(now backup) and Exeltech 1100(former backup...lol), 660 ah 24v Forklift battery(now 10 years old). Off grid for 20 years (if I include 8 months on a bicycle).
    - Assorted other systems, pieces and to many panels in the closet to not do more projects.
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  • littleharbor2
    littleharbor2 Solar Expert Posts: 2,044 ✭✭✭✭✭
    #5
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    If you see this shading now just a week short of the solstice, how much shading will you get and on how many panels as the sun starts tracking lower in  the sky? You mentioned optimized system which will help some but as the shading on your array increases, if it in fact does, you will lose more output.

    2.1 Kw Suntech 175 mono, Classic 200, Trace SW 4024 ( 15 years old  but brand new out of sealed factory box Jan. 2015), Bogart Tri-metric,  460 Ah. 24 volt LiFePo4 battery bank. Plenty of Baja Sea of Cortez sunshine.

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