I have been observing the performance differences of my west wall array and my conventional south arrays. Arrays still pick up a lot of power under cloudy conditions, but the south arrays are doing better. I think I know why.
The current situation is that the west wall will do pretty well with direct afternoon sunlight. However, it is pretty much facing a dark wall of trees, which reduce diffused and reflected sun from the western sky.
On the left of the Solar Shed, the arc of trees between the edge of the airstrip and the red line blocks the view of the sky.
If I cut some trees in that arc, it should brighten up those panels on the wall. The ground falls away very rapidly to the west, so it won’t be very many that have to be cut. Maybe a half dozen are the principal offenders.
It’s too bloody hot to do logging right now and my wood pile is already bloated, so this phase of the project will wait for winter. By then, I should have plenty of “before” data to compare to the “after” data. Stay tuned.
–Neal
