In addition to dimensioning the solar power supply system correctly, it is important to orientate the solar panels appropriately for maximizing the energy production during the season with less sun energy.
In general the solar panel should be facing GEOGRAPHICAL SOUTH in the Northern hemisphere and GEOGRAPHICAL NORTH in the Southern hemisphere. And as a rule of thumb the inclination of the solar panel should be the latitude of the site where you are installing the solar panel -10°.
E.g. For an installation in Germany, close to Frankfurt (with latitude 50° N) you should orientate the solar panel towards SOUTH and with an inclination of 40° with respect to horizontal.
For sites in the North (e.g. Scandinavia), or where there may be very little sunlight during certain periods of the year, an individual solar radiation calculation should be carried out. You can contact our technical support for help on this.
Tropical and Equatorial sites
In inter-tropical latitudes the sun can be located either North or South. In the equator, for example, the met mast structure shadow is projected to the South for 6 months and to the North for the other 6 months. This of course lowers the radiation on the solar panel and we therefore recommend installing two separate solar panels.
Installing two solar panels
If you are going to install two separate solar panels, we recommend the following configuration (see images below). Both panels are to be installed in booms parallels to the West-East Earth axis, with one solar panel pointed towards the North (and tilted approx. 10°) and the other one pointed towards the South (and tilted approx. 10°). The charging efficiency is increased by using independent solar chargers for each solar panel.
