Looking for info and/or reccomendations for panels designed for partial shade conditions

[Dzl]

So far I'm Aware of:

• REC Twinpeak series, with half cut cells
• Sunpower Maxeon X series or P series

 

[Dzl]

Also in case anyone else is on the same journey of trying to figure out how to best deal with partial and unpredictable shading I wanted to link to this earlier related thread I started on partial shading best practices that never got much traction and this semi related thread on the use of multiple mppt controllers in partial shade.

 

[svetz]

Not positive, but I believe it's the Canadian Solar half-cell panels that are setup as 2 panels in 1, the idea being that the bottom half could be shaded by snow.

You might also be interested in Shade on your solar panel can void your warranty and What ever happened to the Maxim Chip?

If you have a lot of shade on panels, microinverters or optimizers might be best.

 

[Dzl]

Not positive, but I believe it's the Canadian Solar half-cell panels that are setup as 2 panels in 1, the idea being that the bottom half could be shaded by snow.

You might also be interested in Shade on your solar panel can void your warranty and What ever happened to the Maxim Chip?

Yeah, I've heard a little about the half cut cells, REC solar uses this tech too, and claim good shade performance since it effectively doubles the number of zones/strings. I'll check out the articles you linked too.

If you have a lot of shade on panels, microinverters or optimizers might be best.

My application is a small offgrid (mobile) system. So I think microinverters are out (most of my power consumers will be DC), I don't know a lot about optimizers. As of now I will likely only have 2 or 3 x 350W panels, so I'm considering giving each panel its own mppt controller like some of the marine guys do.

 

[Dzl]

This article on Sunpower panels is a little too uniformly positive for me to fully trust, but it highlights some of the advantages of Sunpower panels in partial shade

 

[SmartElectric]

New here, am interested in half cut (even though I went with cheaper panels made prior to half cut improvements)
Good article:

Half-cut Solar Cells: What You Need To Know

Half-cut solar cells allow photovoltaic solar panels to generate more energy than with traditional, full-cell solar cell setups.

news.energysage.com

This research paper from 2015 shows the research that may have led to the commercial deployment of the tech from Fraunhofer Center for Silicon Photovoltaics. They did test shading specifically and noted improvements in both vertical and horizontal shading.

REDUCED SHADING EFFECT ON HALF-CELL MODULES – MEASUREMENT AND SIMULATION
Conference Paper (PDF Available) · September 2015

(PDF) REDUCED SHADING EFFECT ON HALF-CELL MODULES – MEASUREMENT AND SIMULATION

PDF | Commercial PV modules consist of series connected solar cells and three bypass diodes to protect the strings against hotspots. The power loss of... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

 

[Bill Taylor]

If power per square meter is not a concern, consider Unisolar panels. They are available on the secondary market. We used them for years. They're the only true shadow tolerant panel I've ever tested. You can cover 20% of the panel, and get 80% of the power. Cover 70% of the panel, still get 30% of the power. The US-64's are rigid and have an aluminum frame like a standard module. Unisolar made other higher output flexible units also. But they are 18" +/- wide and 20' long. With an adhesive backing meant to stick to a roof. All Unisolar products are shade tolerant. Do not confuse these with the semi flexible panels available on the market today. They are completely different.