Manually adjustable tilt racking for large panels?

[peakbagger]

And its reflectance seems to vary on how long its been on the ground and how many freeze thaw cycles its been through. Snoe can come down in fine flakes that are closer to crystals. As they warm up and refreeze the crystals break down and reform into larger crystals. In the spring its quite noticeable and the reference to "rotten snow" comes up. It will look like crusty snow in the AM and can be walked on without snow shoes but give it few hours in the sun and the bonds between the large corn or popcorn sized crystals rapidly break down to the point where even snowshoes will not work. I find this late winter/early spring snow to be less reflective but its offset by higher sun angles.

Some day someone will come up with an economically viable method of storing power for 6 to 9 months (without a grid) so I can just optimize my summer production and run off the battery for the dark and snowy months I dont think hydrogen is the storage medium but some of the flow battery tech seems like a possibility.

 

[Llaves]

Snow is unbelievably reflective.
I spent a couple of years in the Antarctic, it can be well below freezing and you still get sunburn very easily.

Looking at the data for my location (7500' elevation in the NM mountains), the albedo after a snowfall is as high as .87. That means 87% of the light falling on the snow is reflected. It's an very diffuse reflection, of course, and even at winter tilt the panels are pointing away from the ground, so the contribution to solar gain is dwarfed by the direct sun on a typical NM clear sky day.

 

[solarsimon]

I think you forgot to paste in the video link.

edited, thanks.

Cornish Rocker - an Adjustable Ground Mount by Solar Frames South West

A seasonally adjustable grounded mounted solar frame, the Cornish Rocker increases output by up to 40% in the Winter, is robustly built to withstand high winds and can be customised to your needs

www.solar-frames.co.uk

 

[Ptom]

No way would I'd pay for a tiltable rack, I'd use the money for more PV first! BUT, having said that, since I build my own racks anyway, I have made some of them adjustable. Not really worth the hassle in my estimation, now that I'm grid tied, but when I was off grid and every watt extra was precious during THIS time of year, it helped for sure. Being in big snow country is a major factor of course. I see simple fixed racks as a benefit of the drop in PV prices, back when I was paying 5 bucks a watt (and had no money) spending a little time extra in the rack fabrication, especially if it cost me no more, was a no brainer. I used large dia. schedule 40 pipe, 6 to 8", for the main horizontal cross arm, bought used at the scrapyard, no need for paying new steel prices. A 2' long length of heavy channel iron welded to the top of the vert 8" post imbedded in 5 yards of concrete 7' deep, sized so it's "cups" the cross arm, a clamp down bracket on top of it, and 2 angle iron supports that pivot on the lower section of the vert tube, with multiple holes was all it took. Everything was balanced, so short of messing with it on a windy day, hand adjustable. One big hole for the main vert pipe was much quicker and simpler then lining up multiple smaller ones, using massive pipe bought cheap was the key and speeded things up and made it simpler. I have a small crane, so I installed and wired all the modules before lifting it into place, but if I would have had to hire one it would be a quick simple job any local boom truck could do for a couple hundred bucks.