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

Mon Feb 17 08:24:00 PST 2014

One more visualization option attached... had to wait to get to my office
PC... Using the ShadowProjector plugin, you can project lines onto the
surface to show the shadows at various times of day. I did this for each
hour, on the hour from 8am - 3pm local time.

You can do some pretty amazing things with Sketchup with shadows cast UPON
solar panels as well, rather than BY solar panels. There are plugins to
calculate how much shade is cast upon a surface in percentage terms at any
given time of day. The ways you can extend Sketchup is amazing.

By the way, I'm headed to the Sketchup 3D Basecamp conference in April in
Vail, CO. Anyone else planning on attending? I went last year and my
modeling skills went through the roof.

Mac mentioned that Sketchup is a Google product. That is no longer the
case. Trimble bought Sketchup in 2012. Fortunately, they continue to
support and develop it like Google did with the same core group of
developers. I expect in the coming years that Trimble will more tightly
integrate some of their hardware and software products and expand
possibilities even more.

Jason Szumlanski

Fafco Solar

On Mon, Feb 17, 2014 at 9:45 AM, Jason Szumlanski <jason at fafcosolar.com>wrote:

> Here's the Sketchup animation output from the same model with three arrays
> at 35'6" spacing from 8am - 3pm.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofBmpk1tQ7Q
>
>
> Jason Szumlanski
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 16, 2014 at 7:26 PM, Jason Szumlanski <jason at fafcosolar.com>wrote:
>
>> 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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