Hi All!
We don't do a lot of pure off-grid systems and I recently ran across something I wanted to run by folks with more experience in this area: Optimal array tilt for our very cloudy PNW winters! My understanding has always been that latitude plus 10-15 degrees was the best tilt to address our winter energy shortage. However a paper I recently read (1), makes a compelling case for a much shallower tilt in situations where the cloud cover is so heavy that "diffuse" solar radiation is all that makes it through. They indicate that under those conditions a horizontal array will produce significantly more energy than even a two-axis tracker! Given that the challenge in our off-grid setups always seems to be making it through the really cloudy stretches, and that there is usually enough energy the rest of the time, should we be installing off-grid arrays at a shallower angle? Anyone tried this? Kirk Bailey k...@abundantsolar.com www.abundantsolar.com (1) Kelly, N.A., Gibson, T.L, 2011, Increasing the solar photovoltaic energy capture on sunny and cloudy days. Solar Energy 85, 111-125.
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