PV system performance variability

[charlesj]

I thought some may be interested about how daily weather affects panel production and what may be good for one panel location may change the next day. Very curious how panel locations so close(seems insignificant to the sun so far) and performance from day to day and year in and out.
First picture is today, still a little daylight out.
Second picture is lifetime.
Note that panel bottom row and far right and perhaps others how different they can be.

 

[gpez]

That's pretty cool. Looks like just over a 5% difference between the min and max panels, no two adjacent panels are more than 2.4% apart (3rd and 4th panels in the topmost row).

Really curious if the variance is due to layout/location vs differences in the physical composition of the panels, which can vary batch to batch or even panel to panel, owing to the manufacturing process. To find out you'd have to physically swap panels, though. Let us know how that goes

 

[charlesj]

That's pretty cool. Looks like just over a 5% difference between the min and max panels, no two adjacent panels are more than 2.4% apart (3rd and 4th panels in the topmost row).

Really curious if the variance is due to layout/location vs differences in the physical composition of the panels, which can vary batch to batch or even panel to panel, owing to the manufacturing process. To find out you'd have to physically swap panels, though. Let us know how that goes

It really shows how weather patterns play games from day to day. On days that have fog or very uniform muted lighting panels have almost identical power out, withing 1 Watt. Those production variation location changes each day, mostly.
If you compare panel location for that one day production, which panel produces the most or least, then you look at the lifetime production for the same locations and how they rank, it changes. And, you can see how much you lose from the most to the least. In the lifetime it is 6% from most to least. and if you add up all the 17 panels, it is a lot of missed power. But, that is how it is.