[RE-wrenches] high insolation value and inverter undersizing

[John Berdner]

In a grid tied system the question becomes how much clipping and how often.
Intuitively we all know little clipping is probably ok but a lot of clipping is a bad thing.  How much is ok is the question.

Ultimately we should all be concerned with economics (LCOE / ROI).  The clipping experienced by one system design may or may not have a negative influence on LCOE compared to an alternative system designs.  We run LCOE analysis frequently and have a field in the spreadsheet for clipping losses.  For now we just use a fixed percentage but time of day metering makes this much more complicated. With TOD metering the value of energy varies both by time of day and seasonally so the energy lost to clipping can have a different value than the increased energy "on the shoulders".

Ideally one would look at the irradiance over a year and then do a distribution of the hours per year at various insolation levels.  In places other than Hawaii  you need to correlate irradiance to temperature since module power is varies with temperature (typically -0.5%/degree C), i.e. high irradiance on a hot summer day is less likely to cause clipping than high irradiance on a cold winter day.

@ Marco: does your weather data source have a database of insolation and temperature over the year ?

Best Regards,

John Berdner
General Manager, North America



SolarEdge Technologies, Inc.
3347 Gateway Boulevard, Fremont CA 94538 USA  (*Please note of our new address.)
T: 510.498.3200, X 747
M: 530.277.4894

-----Original Message-----
From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of William Miller
Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2013 8:05 PM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] high insolation value and inverter undersizing

Jesse:

Do you have any way to compare the total harvest for the day for a given module in a "clipping" scenario versus an unclipping?  The question I want to answer is: Do we improve production enough on the shoulders of the clip to justify the loss on the peak?


Thanks,

William Miller


At 06:25 PM 1/27/2013, you wrote:
>A while back (3 years)I installed a system (bid spec) for a school that
>used 215W RECs and D380s on a dual axis tracker.  With the ability to
>monitor the array, I see constant clipping.  The modules will usually
>produce 199Ws regularly.  A few days ago we had temps of -34F and clear
>skies.  My array at home had one of its best days this winter.  I have
>Tigos on so I can monitor watts, current, temp and voltage. I was
>seeing anywhere from 215W to 223W from my modules between 11:30am and
>1pm.  The modules on the tracker were still producing 199W.  I didn't
>get an irradiance reading that day but my Tigos showed above IMP
>readings and way above VMP reading that day.
>
>I've only been doing this for 6 years, so I don't have the experience
>that some people on this list have, but it seems foolish to me to waste
>that production.  It's kinda site specific, but where I live the cold
>temps and snow reflection seem like something we should be utilizing.

_______________________________________________
List sponsored by Home Power magazine

List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org

Options & settings:
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org

List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org

List rules & etiquette:
www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm

Check out participant bios:
www.members.re-wrenches.org


CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail and its attachments are intended only for the use of the individual or entity who is the intended recipient and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure or any type of use under applicable law. If the reader of this e-mail is not the intended recipient, or the employee, agent, or representative responsible for delivering the e-mail to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying, or other use of this e-mail is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please reply immediately to the sender.
P Please think of the environment before printing this email