shading by telephone cable?

[maffa ent]

sorry experts, i'm new to this so a bit paranoid! how much will the shadow cast by a bt supply cable approx 3ft above the array affect the system? i thought very little, but apparently other quotes have made specific reference to it.thanks in advance!

 

[telectrix]

about tuppence worth of electricity per decade i would think

 

[SolarCity]

If it is close enough to cast a shadow then it will have an effect - and more than you might think.

Next time we get a nice sunny day on an install, we're going to do some experiments with some solar cable to see how dramatic it is.

 

[SRE]

We had something similar and used PVSOL to do the calcs, 4 cables about 1m above the panels and about 200mm in front - shading reduced the estimate by about 30%. Mind you, we've got a phone cable runnign right across ours (didn't notice it until we installed for our own MCS :uhoh2 but we still managed to generate 28kwh the day before yesterday with 3.96kwp Sharp panels, ESE facing roof in the Norf!!!

Proper Norf that is not Sheffield :wink5:

 

[Graeme Harrold]

Just had a good play with a display in the CAT near Machynlleth where the had 5 BP panels and some nice black clouds on sticks. These ran a pump shifting water up into a tipping bucket (good for small and bih kids) It was a good (basic) demonstration of shading. Small cloud on the corner of a panel had a noticable drop in the pumping power. Didnt take much to stop the pump!!!

Yes shading is an issue, but the cable may not affect it, just watch out for the pole holding them up. Light will bend round objects (diffraction), and thus negate smaller objects affecting the system too much.