[RE-wrenches] Spacing between ground mounted sub-arrays at 48.5 degrees N latitude

Jason Szumlanski jason at fafcosolar.com
Sun Feb 16 16:26:42 PST 2014


I would never present something like this to a customer, but this is just a
quick and dirty estimation based on the criteria given at 48.5N, 85.0W with
the panels oriented to true south and tilted to 35º, ground slope down to
112.5º azimuth at a slope of 7º.

The area shown as gray would have shade at some point between the hours of
8am and 3pm.

It's not shown in the image, but if you wanted the next array to be
precisely true north from the first, you would need to put it about 35'6"
away to ensure zero shading on the winter solstice.

I used Canadian Solar CS6P modules at 65.5" x 38.7" with 1" spacing between
panels.


Jason Szumlanski



On Sun, Feb 16, 2014 at 5:57 PM, Jason Szumlanski <jason at fafcosolar.com>wrote:

> I third the use of Sketchup. I use it every day from design, to
> presentation, to permitting, to construction documents.
>
> Below are links to a few images of a recent 3D model I did. The goal here
> was to have a 10 degree tilt angle and have no shade on the next row on
> December 21 at 9:00am. Turns out I need 1' 9" spacing to do that in Naples,
> FL.
>
>
> http://www.solarsouthwestflorida.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2014-02-16_17-46-16.jpg
>
> http://www.solarsouthwestflorida.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2014-02-16_17-43-22.jpg
>
> http://www.solarsouthwestflorida.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2014-02-16_17-53-19.jpg
> The same concepts can be applied to a sloping surface. In fact, if you
> have a survey, you can trace the contour lines (or get them in CAD
> preferably) and create a pretty precise sloping terrain.
>
> I know Chris already offered to help, but I'd like to take a stab at it,
> too, to see how close our answers are.
>
>
> Jason Szumlanski
>
> Fafco Solar
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 16, 2014 at 5:11 PM, Mac Lewis <maclewis1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>  I second Chris's suggestion of Sketchup.  Its very easy to use and does
>> a great job modeling stuff like this.  There is a free version from Google
>> that is more than adequate for this.
>>
>> Good luck.
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Feb 16, 2014 at 3:08 PM, Chris Mason <
>> cometenergysystems at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I use Sketchup for these calculations now. It will do real shadows at
>>> any time of any day you want.
>>> If you are not familiar with it, send me the exact Google Earth
>>> coordinates and I will mock something up for you.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, Feb 16, 2014 at 5:35 PM, Bob Clark <bclark at solar-wind.us> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Wrenches:
>>>>
>>>> I have a customer who wants 40 solar modules on ground mounts (not
>>>> poles) in an area that slopes to the ESE at 7 degrees.  Putting these
>>>> modules on one ground mount assembly so that the modules are in a 0 degree
>>>> slope East to West would leave the east end about 20 feet in the air.  Not
>>>> acceptable as the customer wants a profile as low as possible for aesthetic
>>>> reasons plus the wind can be quite strong on occasion.
>>>>
>>>> So, I am trying to figure out how far apart 5, 8 module sub-arrays
>>>> (landscape orientation 2 E-W by 4 N-S tilted at 35 degrees S from the
>>>> horizontal) would have to be North to South and East to West so that they
>>>> are low profile yet do not shade each other on the winter solstice at 48.5
>>>> degrees N latitude.  These calculations are complicated by the ground
>>>> sloping to the ESE at 7 degrees.
>>>>
>>>> Can anyone point to an online calculator that takes into account the
>>>> slope of the ground?  Or can anyone help me with the geometry of this
>>>> situation.  I have gone around in circles and thoroughly confused myself.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks in advance.
>>>>
>>>> Bob Clark
>>>> bclark at solar-wind.us
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Chris Mason
>>> President, Comet Systems Ltd
>>> www.cometenergysystems.com
>>> Cell: 264.235.5670
>>> Skype: netconcepts
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Mac Lewis
>>
>>
>>
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