Split Aspect String East/South (Optimisers South Only)

Hi All, I have recently had installed a nominal 6000W system.
15 400W panels

6 West Facing

6 East Facing

3 South Facing

All on a Growatt Hybrid Inverter.

One string for the west panels and then the other for the east and south panels.

The south panels have Tigo optimisers fitted, in the belief that when the east panels fall into shade in the afternoons that they (the south) would continue to generate. This doesn’t appear to be the case in practice, and have the awful dread that the optimisers were needed on the east panels rather than the south to allow this to happen.

Is that correct, and what sort of output should I expect from 1200 W south facing panels in the afternoon hours? At 4pm today the west 6 were nearly at full nominal kWh producitivity (2.2 kWh vs 2.4 Max) where as my other string was only producing 0.25 kWh, and I’d be expecting much nearer the 1.2 kWh south facing that were still in full sun. I suspect my current reality is that the shaded east panels dictate the afternoon yield of that string. Hope that makes some sense, and that I can be put out of my misery and find a solution.

Curtis

Community Moderator

June 14, 2023 23:06
Edited

Hello Ian Newbold,

Thank you for your contribution to the Tigo Community!

It sounds like you have a Partial Deployment that may not be optimal for your system design. Before discussing, please note that Tigo Optimization is effective against most shade scenarios, but it is not a fix for extreme PV Module orientation issues.

A Tigo TS4-A-O system can help to balance string current, IF:

The orientation difference is not extreme (east vs west).
There is a Full Deployment on the string (all units covered).

The idea is: If one portion of the string's output is reduced due to panel resistance (shading), the Optimization may help to keep the current high enough to not affect production on the opposing portion of string (that is receiving the most sun).

For more information on this kind of design, check out this article:
Designing your TS4 system for different tilts, angles, and orientation

There are also a similar discussions happening on these Community Posts:

I hope this helps out a bit. If you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to Contact the Support Team.

Split Aspect String East/South (Optimisers South Only)

Didn't find what you were looking for?

Comments