Maximum PV production per area.

[jasonhc73]

In this model, what mounting method produces the most power for the area.

You have 10 (hectares/acres/miles etc, large open area), on ground or water.
No trees, or anything else that could create shadows.

The latitude is 15°

There are several options to get the maximum PV production.

Do you mount everything flat? Match the latitude angle? Single-axis tracker? Dual-axis trackers? Bifacial panels?

The quest is to find the ideal configuration for maximum output for the open space given. It's a model, limited to and utilize the entire area.

Consider all inverters and cables and anything, not panels or mounting as buried under everything or across the street.

Brainstorm this challenge.

 

[JeepHammer]

I always considered this in the 'Infrastructure' expense end of things, which so many people overlook...
And planning will save a TON of money.

Fixed or adjustable?
Manual or automated adjustments?

In this model, what mounting method produces the most power for the area.

Surface area of the panels?

You have 10 (hectares/acres/miles etc, large open area), on ground or water.
No trees, or anything else that could create shadows.

No obstructions or shading.

The latitude is 15°

There are several options to get the maximum PV production.

???????

Do you mount everything flat? Match the latitude angle? Single-axis tracker? Dual-axis trackers? Bifacial panels?

The quest is to find the ideal configuration for maximum output for the open space given. It's a model, limited to and utilize the entire area.

The entire 10 square? So large scale...

Consider all inverters and cables and anything, not panels or mounting as buried under everything or across the street.

For 10 square, I only see one way to do this, and that's north/south post runs and panel mounts between them that rotate east/west to track sun.
Panel strings/post runs far enough apart they don't shade each other at effective east/west sun angle.
More atmosphere at extreme east/west angles, even when panels are rotated to face East/west tracking, so at some point production drops to ineffective (for the peak infrastructure handling capabilities) so east west shading space will be fairly limited.



Space between north/south mount runs determine effective MINIMUMS because of shading.
The further they are spaced apart the more sun you can capture before they shade each other, but there are effective function limits to even that...

If someone has a better idea I'd sure like to see it.

The 'Perfect' option would be a 10 square on a WIDE, south facing hillside that corrected for much of the seasonal sun angle, but you said 'Flat'...

------------------------

Every North/South fence line has 8' above ground posts/pipes/panels at my place, make that fence row pay for itself. An electric screw jack on a timer rotates panels East/West without a lot of maintenance, and increases power output 15-25% daily over flat mount panels.
8' up means livestock, things thrown my the mower doesn't damage the panels, but wind can be an issue.
It took some extra wiring, series driving voltage up solves a bunch of the loss issues with long runs of wiring.

-----------------------------

Bifacial on some reflective surface, like white sand or water presents an interesting opportunity, I never thought of that.
Over 'Green' (grass yards or pastures) leaves little red or blue light left in the reflected light, so it wouldn't do me much good, but someone over a lot of concrete, or light sand, particularly white, or reflected off water I *Think* would increase production quite a bit.

 

[nosys70]

it just about the money.
you can mount high-tech with solar tracking , automatic cleaning etc... but it will cost you the hell, so the ROI is zero.
If you have thousand of panels, it is not the same if there is only a dozen.
you need to provide more info.
What's the purpose ? sell electricity or just going off-grid, is there a need to store it ? is maintenance possible/required/mandatory ?
if it is a place without electricity and some business require electricity, then the cost of installation is marginal.
The layout of the terrain also can help or cause constraint. For example you can use the slope if it is in the right direction.
you can even put mirrors that cost less than panels and concentrate light over a small group of panels.

 

[JeepHammer]

it just about the money.
you can mount high-tech with solar tracking , automatic cleaning etc... but it will cost you the hell, so the ROI is zero.
If you have thousand of panels, it is not the same if there is only a dozen.
you need to provide more info.
What's the purpose ? sell electricity or just going off-grid, is there a need to store it ? is maintenance possible/required/mandatory ?
if it is a place without electricity and some business require electricity, then the cost of installation is marginal.
The layout of the terrain also can help or cause constraint. For example you can use the slope if it is in the right direction.
you can even put mirrors that cost less than panels and concentrate light over a small group of panels.

There are places (closer to the equator) that don't have reliable power, that 'Wake Up' when panels start to produce at high enough levels for the production to begin.

Even in Ohio there are places with covered employee parking, solar panels contribute to power requirements, although in the US taxpayer dollars are used to subsidize fossil fuel power production, energy costs are much higher in one places.

I'm pretty sure those big companies did the math and figure a profit margin in.
With 10 square sizing (large scale) this has to be big numbers, and there is economy in scale.

Many big storage facilities (UPS/FedEx/Walmart etc) have rooftop panels you can't see that overproduce and sell back to the utility at a profit, but that's a state by state thing and depends on total production to make it profitable.

For people that don't travel a lot, they probably haven't noticed the smaller solar fields popping up in or around industrial parks to supplement the daytime use of energy at those industrial facilities.
Many are much smaller than the OP stipulates, just anywhere from 2 to 5 acres are fairly common.
City utilities are getting into the market big time, usually through 3rd party contractors, and even with that third party they have to be somewhat profitable.

The 'Trick' would be to keep support equipment/infrastructure costs down, including taxes, on the actual production equipment, the panels.
Inverters, conduit, wiring, mounts, panel racks, etc are all infrastructure while only the panels produce.

Much different than sitting a couple panels out leaned up against something charging a 12 volt battery...

-------------------------

I've run into a deal where I can aquire a bunch of panels, and since I had so many low powered panels, the infrastructure is mostly in place...
SO...
I looked into what to do with summer over production, finally having enough production for winter, and I can't legally sell or give away anything I don't use/store in my state.
I'd have to register as a 'Utility' and be subject to rate regulation, government oversight, etc.
So if it works out, I will get an EV and what I can switch over to electricity that I've been using propane for.
(This Assumes I don't screw the pooch on the math or installs)

 

[nosys70]

yes, also some just make "Green washing" for free by covering the cost with subvention.
There are so many case on why you would justify money for solar panels.

 

[cass3825]

Dual-axis “back tracker” is worth consideration when panels are placed close enough to one another to cast shadows on each other at/near sunrise/sunset.

 

[jasonhc73]

Dual-axis “back tracker” is worth consideration when panels are placed close enough to one another to case shadows on each other at/near sunrise/sunset.

Consider how much spacing you must have for no shadows on the next "flower" VS a completely covered area with panels, no gaps, bifacial, white sand under the panels to reflect as much as possible back to the underside panels.

The spacing over a 10 acre area is quite significant. Does that equal more PV output than the same area with latitude angled panels all on the same plane?

 

[jasonhc73]

There are places (closer to the equator) that don't have reliable power, that 'Wake Up' when panels start to produce at high enough levels for the production to begin.

Even in Ohio there are places with covered employee parking, solar panels contribute to power requirements, although in the US taxpayer dollars are used to subsidize fossil fuel power production, energy costs are much higher in one places.

I'm pretty sure those big companies did the math and figure a profit margin in.
With 10 square sizing (large scale) this has to be big numbers, and there is economy in scale.

Many big storage facilities (UPS/FedEx/Walmart etc) have rooftop panels you can't see that overproduce and sell back to the utility at a profit, but that's a state by state thing and depends on total production to make it profitable.

For people that don't travel a lot, they probably haven't noticed the smaller solar fields popping up in or around industrial parks to supplement the daytime use of energy at those industrial facilities.
Many are much smaller than the OP stipulates, just anywhere from 2 to 5 acres are fairly common.
City utilities are getting into the market big time, usually through 3rd party contractors, and even with that third party they have to be somewhat profitable.

The 'Trick' would be to keep support equipment/infrastructure costs down, including taxes, on the actual production equipment, the panels.
Inverters, conduit, wiring, mounts, panel racks, etc are all infrastructure while only the panels produce.

Much different than sitting a couple panels out leaned up against something charging a 12 volt battery...

-------------------------

I've run into a deal where I can aquire a bunch of panels, and since I had so many low powered panels, the infrastructure is mostly in place...
SO...
I looked into what to do with summer over production, finally having enough production for winter, and I can't legally sell or give away anything I don't use/store in my state.
I'd have to register as a 'Utility' and be subject to rate regulation, government oversight, etc.
So if it works out, I will get an EV and what I can switch over to electricity that I've been using propane for.
(This Assumes I don't screw the pooch on the math or installs)

You are starting to touch on what is beginning to happen with solar net metering, and micro utilities.

The cost of panels is not what the brainstorm is about. But if you ignore cost in the real world it will make a huge difference. If a 2 axis light tracking (not time tracking) costs $15k for a 30 panel tracker, then you would be insane to buy the tracker. For 15k you can get nearly 30 kWp of panels, VS 7-9 kWp on the tracker. The tracker certainly produces a much more flat output, compared to the parabolic curve of the flat stationary array.

 

[JeepHammer]

Sure...

I don't have a bunch of experience with bigger commercial projects, but it doesn't take genius to figure out the less expensive the mounts/infrastructure the faster you will reach break even point on the PV modules.
Increasing production also means faster payback, so if you can figure out how to sun track, compensate for sun angle and get more peak production the higher the profit margin.

There is a reason I broke it into panels and infrastructure...
Infrastructure can quite easily double the cost, and that doubles the break even point since the panels aren't going to magically produce double no matter what mount you use.
I'm stupid happy with a 15% bump with 1 axis articulation, it really did make a big difference in payback time, and we often needed every Watt.

I went the least expensive route I could find and build myself, and I stole the idea from the large scale PV solar fields I had seen, posts and pipes were something I can do myself small scale.
I see the post and rotating pipe (picture I posted) used most often in solar fields around here, but I really don't know how things are done other than roof tops and you asked for ideas...

It's also stupid handy when you can rotate the panels nearly vertical edge ways, makes getting them cleaned off MUCH easier, snow, dirt, etc.
I limited the rotation too much the first time I did it, that's fixed now.
A gear motor would be the 'Best' way to do it, but that can be complicated and expensive...

I think of a screw jack as redundancy,
Lever on the pipe, screw jack has limits, guaranteed hard stop before panels or wiring gets damaged.
With a gear motor, a malfunction other than motor giving up, the panels could rotate 360° and tear out wiring.
I use redundant micro switches (series wired) so if one fails the second takes up the task.
If both fail closed, the screw jack has hard stop limits, the next cheapest moving component in the motion chain.
Never had two switches fail at the same time, but it's 'Possible'.

A fuse real close to motor draw is another safety, but gear reduction units 'Grunt' so little they can bend/break things before they demand big amps that can be real tricky...

I refuse to use proximity sensor and a bunch of complicated hardware, the less you have to fail, the less failures you have, and proximity sensor can be fooled by moisture, temp, etc. and require constant power to operate.
I learned that lesson the hard way...

 

[offgriddle]

Large Scale Battery Storage: Way up North where the men are men and the sheep are scared, I happened upon a large electrical generation project whilst on my snowmobile. During the evening hours when the cost of electricity was lower than daytime rates, huge grid powered water pumps would pump from a lower water resovoir and fill a higher resovoir. During the daytime hours the water would flow out of the higher resovoir and turn turbines to generate electricity which was sold to the grid at the higher, daytime rate.

 

[jasonhc73]

Sure...

I don't have a bunch of experience with bigger commercial projects, but it doesn't take genius to figure out the less expensive the mounts/infrastructure the faster you will reach break even point on the PV modules.
Increasing production also means faster payback, so if you can figure out how to sun track, compensate for sun angle and get more peak production the higher the profit margin.

There is a reason I broke it into panels and infrastructure...
Infrastructure can quite easily double the cost, and that doubles the break even point since the panels aren't going to magically produce double no matter what mount you use.
I'm stupid happy with a 15% bump with 1 axis articulation, it really did make a big difference in payback time, and we often needed every Watt.

I went the least expensive route I could find and build myself, and I stole the idea from the large scale PV solar fields I had seen, posts and pipes were something I can do myself small scale.
I see the post and rotating pipe (picture I posted) used most often in solar fields around here, but I really don't know how things are done other than roof tops and you asked for ideas...

It's also stupid handy when you can rotate the panels nearly vertical edge ways, makes getting them cleaned off MUCH easier, snow, dirt, etc.
I limited the rotation too much the first time I did it, that's fixed now.
A gear motor would be the 'Best' way to do it, but that can be complicated and expensive...

I've seen a single axis tracker with 18 panels go from 18 kWh per day to 46 kWh per day. That's not 15%-45%, that's 250%. I truly do think the single axis tracker provides the greatest bang for the buck.

Now imagine that solar panels cost much lower and have much higher performance. Imagine like satellite efficiency of 40% PV conversion. And imagine that the price is not 1.50 per watt, but only 1.50 per kilowatt.

Now price is not a factor in the panels, price is only a factor in the mounting/tracking. The cheapest mounting is simply laying them directly on the ground. Clearly not the best, but definitely an option.

 

[JeepHammer]

I've seen a single axis tracker with 18 panels go from 18 kWh per day to 46 kWh per day. That's not 15%-45%, that's 250%. I truly do think the single axis tracker provides the greatest bang for the buck.

Now imagine that solar panels cost much lower and have much higher performance. Imagine like satellite efficiency of 40% PV conversion. And imagine that the price is not 1.50 per watt, but only 1.50 per kilowatt.

Now price is not a factor in the panels, price is only a factor in the mounting/tracking. The cheapest mounting is simply laying them directly on the ground. Clearly not the best, but definitely an option.

Honestly, I don't track production numbers other than in winter when every Watt counts.
In winter, I only watch to see if we need to run the generator, and if so, I plan some welding or 3 phase machine work to compensate and use as much of the generator power as possible.

I see about 15% in the dead of winter with flat panels & east/west tracking.
Keep in mind I'm running a 'Mix & Match' conglomeration of panels, some very old, but the wiring is good.
I'm also at 38.6° North, not 15° off the equator like in your model, and that makes a HUGE difference.
The panel situation is about to change, but I wouldn't trade sun tracking for anything, particularly in winter.
It's just too cheap/simple to do for the results, and in my specific situation, I had to have fence posts anyway...

Being a farm kid I've set plenty of posts, the cost & height of the post was the only real difference.
I bartered with a guy that had a post drill, and I went to work using a string line to keep the fence straight.
I'm sure a laser would have been 'Tacti-Cool', but a string was cheaper...
Lasers didn't grow on keychains when I started this.

Pipe came from the fence place, it's used in chain link fences and pretty cheap, and since I would take the rusty recycled stuff it was even cheaper.
If the top pipes will hold up 500 pounds of chain link between posts, it will hold up panels.

Screw jack came from the old giant satellite dishes that used to be everywhere.
Like I said several times, it's not the slickly produced extruded aluminum show piece that people like now,
But it's functional, what I could afford 20 years ago, and I could do it myself as I aquire components.
Not exactly 'State Of The Art', but very functional...

You pointed out tracking the actual sun directly.
I use timers. My tracking doesn't 'Bump' the panels 100 times a day.
I'm sure I loose some small percentage of production being 3-5 degrees off 'Precise'.
I don't dispute that one bit.

What I can tell you is a splatter of bird crap or a spider web on the photo cell detector doesn't stall my system entirely. There is no software or computer involved to fail.
I tried photo cell tracking, and when I did it failed A LOT, from cob webs to bird droppings, to watching the stupid thing continuously rotate panels back & forth trying to find sun on a cloudy day...

I'm sure there are 'Fixes' for all of that, but this is what works for me personally.
A $15 timer with little clips to start/close a circuit, and $1 micro switches to open that circuit at the next stop does the job pretty well and runs for years with nothing more than adjusting the clips by season, every two or three months.
*IF* this were commercial production, I might go the other way, but I want it to function without simple fails stopping everything, as foolproof as possible.
Like I said, I'm pretty small scale, and everything I used is 'Common Market', no custom software needed.

 

[jasonhc73]

Honestly, I don't track production numbers other than in winter when every Watt counts.
In winter, I only watch to see if we need to run the generator, and if so, I plan some welding or 3 phase machine work to compensate and use as much of the generator power as possible.

...

The gist of the question is this:
If you had more panels (in a fixed position) where the shadows are created from the tilting, would you have more production?

Timed tracking absolutely does work, and has been used for hundreds of years with mirrors and clockwork mechanics...

What if we added into this situation a mirror to reflect and follow the sun (a heliostat) to hit fixed panels?

 

[JeepHammer]

Just whipped our butts putting in 4"x6" treated posts and pipes for a solar field the last 4 days, I'm so sore and beat up I can't hardly move, but it's producing very well (yesterday at least, the first Sunny day since panels went on).
It's still low sun, so you can't expect miracles, but the rotating strings produced 19% more than the horizontal, non-tracking strings.
Still waiting on gear motors to rotate some of the strings, and still have some panels to install, but it's not going to be long until somebody else is fully up and running.
DC coupled micro grid that I didn't quite understand how the electrician did things, but it's almost a 12kWh up and running grid tied system with Battery Backup that didn't bust the budget, about $20,000 all told since the owner (and friends) did 90% of the work.

BTY, the guy is using a timer to return panels east, and a solar tracker in the daytime.
$103 by his estimation for the timer/solar tracker.

 

[Steve_S]

Dang Nabbit. I was looking for an article I saw a couple of years ago. A hardcore ShadeTree inventor came up with a really cool tracker idea an had posted a small article on it which I can remember where It is. He used a couple of Read Differentials off a truck, Peg Legs (not positracs) and used the shaft pinion to move the panels left-right (east-west). He has some small DC motor setup so it moved everything. It was, shall we say, rough & ready but hell it worked. The photo's has 6-60 Cells panels per diff and apparently there was no loading issues or anything. As I recall it, it was anchored to a concrete base with 45Deg. angles of angle iron welded to the housing and then bolted to the concrete for stability.

Seemed like a really nifty idea and it's not like getting an old differential would be hard or expensive either, especially the Peg Legs which no one wants anyway.

Commercial tracking systems of any kind, even just the manually adjustable tilting racks can get crazy pricey but if someone is willing to pay the price and the "Market Bares It" then Market Bares pricing rules go into effect. That simply states that you charge the highest price the market space will bare to maximize profits. If a fool is willing to pay $5,000 for $500 worth of goods, then the vendor will sell it to them for $5,000.

 

[jasonhc73]

Dang Nabbit. I was looking for an article I saw a couple of years ago. A hardcore ShadeTree inventor came up with a really cool tracker idea an had posted a small article on it which I can remember where It is. He used a couple of Read Differentials off a truck, Peg Legs (not positracs) and used the shaft pinion to move the panels left-right (east-west). He has some small DC motor setup so it moved everything. It was, shall we say, rough & ready but hell it worked. The photo's has 6-60 Cells panels per diff and apparently there was no loading issues or anything. As I recall it, it was anchored to a concrete base with 45Deg. angles of angle iron welded to the housing and then bolted to the concrete for stability.

Seemed like a really nifty idea and it's not like getting an old differential would be hard or expensive either, especially the Peg Legs which no one wants anyway.

Commercial tracking systems of any kind, even just the manually adjustable tilting racks can get crazy pricey but if someone is willing to pay the price and the "Market Bares It" then Market Bares pricing rules go into effect. That simply states that you charge the highest price the market space will bare to maximize profits. If a fool is willing to pay $5,000 for $500 worth of goods, then the vendor will sell it to them for $5,000.

This guy made a single axis tracker with basically 4 parts.
2 solar panels, An actuator, and a hinge.

 

[JeepHammer]

Dang Nabbit. I was looking for an article I saw a couple of years ago. A hardcore ShadeTree inventor came up with a really cool tracker idea an had posted a small article on it which I can remember where It is. He used a couple of Read Differentials off a truck, Peg Legs (not positracs) and used the shaft pinion to move the panels left-right (east-west). He has some small DC motor setup so it moved everything. It was, shall we say, rough & ready but hell it worked. The photo's has 6-60 Cells panels per diff and apparently there was no loading issues or anything. As I recall it, it was anchored to a concrete base with 45Deg. angles of angle iron welded to the housing and then bolted to the concrete for stability.

Seemed like a really nifty idea and it's not like getting an old differential would be hard or expensive either, especially the Peg Legs which no one wants anyway.

Commercial tracking systems of any kind, even just the manually adjustable tilting racks can get crazy pricey but if someone is willing to pay the price and the "Market Bares It" then Market Bares pricing rules go into effect. That simply states that you charge the highest price the market space will bare to maximize profits. If a fool is willing to pay $5,000 for $500 worth of goods, then the vendor will sell it to them for $5,000.

I did something like that, but being none too bright, I backed into mine.
Not being born with any 'Extra' IQ points, and being 'Joe Average' I have to do everything at least twice...
The difference between me and most 'Stupid' people is, I know I'm NOT 'Gifted', and anything I get I'll have to work HARD for...

Where a HUGE pole building was being built, I scooped up a bunch of treated 6x6 and 8x8 post cut offs and ran home giggling like a little girl that I had posts for a panel rack a tornado couldn't carry off...
And I started digging like a ground hog!
On thing a farm boy turned Marine knows how to use is a shovel!!!

So I get 8x8 uprights in, cross braced with 6x6!
Again, not being too bright, and not being a carpenter, I cut them about 3 times and they were still too short!
Got out the Harbor Freight, made in China board stretcher, and it doesn't work on posts, so everything twice...

So now I have a frame that will support a loaded Boeing 747 balanced on its nose,
(King of overkill here...)
I get my hodge-podge of mis-matched panels installed on 4x4's (like the 8x8 & 6x6 wasn't strong enough) and get everything wired, up and running...

All good! *Right?*...

Then I do the layout where I want the house, the cold storage room, and the root cellar...
Guess where the panel rack is sitting?... (You only need one guess...)

----------------------

So, flash forward a year, and I'm firing up the chain saw, since I set the 8x8's in heavy cement,
Cut them off at concrete level and Jack the entire thing up to drag it off,
Then it occurred to me I had salvaged a office trailer frame that was more or less the same size, so instead of building skids and dragging it, I jacked it up further and put it on the trailer.

Moved the trailer and installed the cold storage next to the root cellar,
And was busy digging deep post holes AGAIN when it dawned on me I had been rotating the trailer east/west to squeeze a little more power out of my second hand panels...

So I started looking for a way to mount the trailer frame on a 'Mast' with a heavy bearing on top...

The land came with 'Junk' from the coal mine that previously owned it, and the big truck axle came to mind.
Pull one axle shaft out and bolt it back down, backwards, the shaft sticking out, not into the housing.
Blow a hole through the axle with a torch, put in a long cross bolt to anchor in concrete,
And dig ANOTHER hole,
Stand the axle up in the hole, and mix concrete.

The 'Up' side wheel bearing is my east/west rotation, and the big wooden rack has hinges for summer/winter sun angle...
I call it a solar 'Tree'.
Incline is manual by months, rotation is daily by timer.

I've only posted pictures of it once, got so many comments about 'Junk Yard', 'Trailer Park', etc I'll never post them again...
Survived 100 MPH straight line winds, survived several 70 MPH near passes by tornados, and every store for 20 years, so they can call it what they like because it's still got the axles/wheels under the trailer, and hitch on the front, it's not property taxed in my state.
Tires have long since rotted to the point they won't hold air, but since they are 'Present' it's a 'Farm Trailer' and not taxed, so everyone that doesn't like rust, crude construction can do what they want, it's fine for me!

Fun Fact...
The bolts I used on the wood, bags of cement & 4x4s were the total cost...
Everything else was salvage, or what people call 'Up-Cycling' now (farmers call it 'Making Due').

I did add some posts with steel 'Wheels' in the corners, turned to track the rotation, and $1 pavers in the same arc.
When the wind REALLY gets kicking, the trailer fame flexes just enough to put 'Wheels' (more like castors) on the arc of 12"x12" pavers adding stability.

My standing (fixed) panel racks are salvaged oil field pipe, welding rods, and built like they are on skids.
Again, they are not taxed because they are 'Livestock' shelters and mobile (on skids).
Screw in anchors keep them in place when the 70-100 MPH winds blow, 35° fixed angle roofs well above the livestock (or adult heads down by the lake or river) and produce every day.
The oil field pipe cost me scrap weight, which is stupid cheap (usually free) since it has to be steam cleaned before they can take it to a junk yard (EPA Laws to get the sludge out).

I see a yard full of old oil field equipment that's been sitting for years, I just stop and ask...
Usually it's free, but you usually get told you have to take all of it... OK with me since I have room to leave it lay until I get to it...

It may be 'Low Tech', and it may be rusty, but the leased pastures make rent money, the livestock shelters make electricity, and I even stuff in tall fence posts and plug in solar panels around the livestock shelters where my conduits/wiring comes up. Make the fences pay me twice when I can...

With pastures, get paid for hay cutting when we rotate pastures, get paid for livestock run on it, get paid for the electricity the posts/shelters produce, and I rally don't care what too many people think when they aren't writing me checks...

When they write me checks I'll worry about what they *Think*...

I posted some pictures of a combiner I built, and this is the ONLY place I'd post those pictures, anyplace else and they would laugh at my 60¢ isolating diodes that would cost $200+ anywhere else...
No place else would they understand disconnecting the panels when Voc/Over Volt situation arises.
No place else would they understand over current breakers instead of over amp breakers.

I just got laughed at on a 'Homesteading/"Survival"/SHTF' forum for suggesting DIN rails and DIY approach instead of paying $1,200 for a combiner/disconnect...
The very definition of 'Survival/SHTF' is being able to build/fix/repair yourself with what out can scrounge or stockpile, and the idea of $3 relays/$10 breakers/disconnects on $10 worth of DIN rails got laughed at in favor of $1,200 worth of 'Solid State', proprietary hardware...

I can't fix stupid, and I don't even try anymore...
So I loose a few Watts by NOT using digital tracking of the sun,
On the other hand, 20+ years with few fails, and all fails were easily fixed with common, NON-Proprietary hardware.
$100 proximity sensor is 'Cool', $2 common switch is cost effective and cheap enough to have 'Extras' in the housing box! So I only get 100,000 cycles out of the $2 switch & $3 relay, instead of 250,000 cycles out of a $100 proximity sensor that fails in moist, freezing weather (100 times every winter)...
I'll go the $5 route every time!

------------

PS,
Grease instead of gear oil in any axle gear set,
4 spot welds on 'Spider' (side) gears turns any common 'Open' differential into a 'Spool'.
3/4 ton and up pickups have 'Floating' axles and THOUGH, big tube housings, you can flip the axle on anything with 'Floating' axles, you don't need big truck for up to 6 or 8 panels.

Up off the ground, your mower doesn't throw crap at your panels, you can now under the panel edges.
Cheap rock salt (or more expensive water softener salt) under the panels keeps weeds to a minimum if you hate edging/weed eating,
Get it about 4' off the ground and they old farm dog won't sleep on the panels!
(Yup! That unexplained dip in production after I left for work, the old dog found himself a warm spot for his old bones...)

Since your panels are up off the ground and 'Tall',
Irrigation 'Drip' watering tube zip tied to the tops of the panels, long handle 'dust mop' let's you wash the bird droppings and general crud off, detach the garden hose and let the tube drain in winter so it doesn't freeze.
Tube, zip ties & garden hose adapter cost about $20 and save a crap ton of work when it's panel cleaning time.

There is a LOT of common sense you can do if you think about it a little, and take advise...
I'm none too smart, but I know a good idea when I steal it!