diy solar

diy solar

Solar array porn

Heading up there today so will take some more pics and ask about efficiency.
Thank you. Many articles state the average life expectancy for solar panels (efficiency) is between 14 and16 years. I hope it can be more than 16 years.
 
Couldn't ask about efficiency as he was out raking hay on the tractor. Was able to take another few shots. I can say on inverter 2 before 1pm it read 10.77Kw for today. If that is correct they still seem to be putting out some good power? Perhaps one of out more commercially oriented forum members can pipe in here to comment.

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Ground mounted panels run so much cooler. With 15% panel power efficiency the other 85% is dissipated as heat. They make more power of hot days and live longer than roof mounts.
 
PV panels can lose efficiency (degraded output) depending on environment and electrical operating conditions.

SunPower discovered that some years ago. Their panels used a different doping of silicon, intended to be more efficient and longer lasting, but they degraded more rapidly in arrays that were negative grounded (all cells operated at a bias positive relative to ground.) Those panels needed to be used in an inverter which grounded positive end of the string.
The inverters shown in the picture can be configured for either positive or negative ground.

SunPower has since made changes, I think to epoxy and possibly glass, to eliminate the issue. So their newer panels are supposed to be mostly immune to the issue.

"PID" it is called. If there is dirt accumulated on PV glass and some moisture, that forms an electrode over surface of glass that is grounded by frame, so there is an electric field from that through the glass to cells, which causes migration of ions. Thermal pictures showed differences between cells near edge of panel vs. cells in middle. The effect varies depending on environmental conditions and operating voltage.



 
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