Page 284 - Solar Power in Building Design The Engineer's Complete Design Resource

PRELIMINARY ENGINEERING DESIGN 251

Figure 9.2 Insolation graph for Los Angeles PV panels mounted
at a 15-degree tilt angle.

occurrences of shading, decide to minimize the size of the array as much as possible, thus
limiting the number of PV units in the array, which may require a small-size power capac-
ity inverter. The most essential factor that must be taken into consideration is that all
inverters used in the solar power system must be completely compatible.
When laying out the PV arrays, care should be taken to allow sufficient access to
array clusters for maintenance and cleaning purposes. In order to avoid deterioration
of power output, solar arrays must be washed and rinsed periodically. Adequately

Figure 9.3 Insolation graph for Los Angeles PV panels mounted
at a 33-degree tilt angle.