Solar panels - portrait vs landscape orientation

roadweary

Hi,

I'm looking into designs for solar. The more I read / speak with 'experts' the more confused I become. Gemini has been useful, but also gets confused and has to e challenged!

Anyhow…

It seems that without shading this doesn't matter. Your choice might be down to which orientation allows you to get the number of panels you need in place if you are tight for space.

In my case, I want to install on my north facing roof also. I know it's probably at least half as efficient but the cost/value numbers add up.

However, opposite that roof on the other side of the road are tall trees. I'm assuming they'll throw a roughly horizontal line onto my roof although I accept that may not be 100% accurate.

I've looked at Aiko panels and their shadow optimisation, but I see this link suggesting it's hugely exaggerated in real world conditions.

I believe most modern panels, including Aiko, have 3 vertical zones (looking at the panel in portrait) and then split those cells half way down.

My brain tells me that in portrait, a horizontal shadow touching the bottom of the panel would block all 3 long zones, but we have that split half way up….so it's blocking 3 out of 6 areas.

In landscape, that same horizontal shadow would only block one long zone, so 2 out of the 6 areas.

I don't know if this is correct,but short of individual optimisers, is there any wisdom as to which orientation would be better for what I think is mainly horizontal shading?

And any views on the Aiko claims from real word experience?

Thanks,

Brie

closing this due to duplication.