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Nearby, in windy and desolate Colorado, SunEdison has three big arrays, each with a different mounting technology:

1) fixed-tilt, seasonally-adjustable, flat-panel PV

2) single-axis-tracking, flat-panel PV

3) dual-axis-tracking, concentrator photovoltaics



> fixed-tilt, seasonally-adjustable, flat-panel PV

What is adjusted for the season? The angle of the panels? I would imagine that one would have to be very close to the equator for this to be worthwhile.


You can retilt those two, three, or four times per year.

Tilting for summer achieves maybe 70% of the power of an automated tracker. In the winter it’s much closer. I suspect in snowy places that the extra weight could overload the automated mechanism. In winter, tracking and fixed achieve nearly the same.

If you were retilting for summer at 25 degrees latitude, you’d tilt slightly away from the equator.




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