Series/parallel wiring of panels to compensate for partial shading

[Creopater]

Wanting to know if wiring (8) 200 watt panels in series/parallel would be optimal for a configuration in which half the panels will be partially shaded when all are tilted? I am designing a system for the roof of my RV that will have four panels mounted on full extension slides over four fixed panels. When extended (and tilted), half the panels may be partially shaded. I’m looking for the best of both worlds here. When all are flat, of course, there is no issue wiring in either Series or Parallel. My understanding is that series/parallel wiring also reduces the gauge of wire needed.
Any help greatly appreciated. Yes, I am new to this.

 

[FilterGuy]

Wanting to know if wiring (8) 200 watt panels in series/parallel would be optimal for a configuration in which half the panels will be partially shaded when all are tilted? I am designing a system for the roof of my RV that will have four panels mounted on full extension slides over four fixed panels. When extended (and tilted), half the panels may be partially shaded. I’m looking for the best of both worlds here. When all are flat, of course, there is no issue wiring in either Series or Parallel. My understanding is that series/parallel wiring also reduces the gauge of wire needed.
Any help greatly appreciated. Yes, I am new to this.

Series lowers current and that is good for power drop across the wires.
Parallel increases current but tends to be less impacted by shading.

The best (but expensive) way to deal with shading is to have more charge controllers. The extreme of this is a charge controller (or at least an optimizer) per panel. Having multiple charge controllers is going to be particularly useful if some of your panels are at different angles or shaded. If I follow the description, when fully deployed there will be a set of flat panels, and two sets of panels that are at two different angles that are not flat. Ideally, the described configuration would have at least 3 controllers... one for each of three above sets. With all the effort to have slide-out panels, it seems to me the cost of extra controllers should not be a factor.

Assuming there won't be separate controllers, then each set needs to be separate and parallel to the others.... but if the panel count in each group is not the same number and configuration of panels, this can be a problem as well. If they are not identical or even if they are at different angles, one group is likely to dominate the voltage and limit any gain from the other two sets. Furthermore, if there arn't blocking diodes, the non dominant sets can actually lower the output you would get from the dominant set alone. To minimize this it is important to put in blocking diodes on each set.


This might be a good video to review: