Parking Lot Canopy Array

At the parking lot site, a PV canopy was erected over each north-south parking row.  To promote water shedding, each canopy is tilted 5 degrees down from horizontal.  As a result, four of eight canopies tilt to the west, and the other four of eight canopies tilt to the east. The modules are installed with their longer dimension running east-west.  Each shed contains 129 modules laid out in a 3 (E-W) x 43 (N-S) grid.  The rated DC power output at this site is 243 kW.  Seven circuits feed the single inverter, which is located under the southern end of sheds #4 and #5.  Although burdensome to implement from a construction standpoint, all modules in a given series string are at the same tilt in an effort to minimize mismatch within a string – i.e., the effects from differences in the plane-of-shed irradiances, west tilt versus east tilt. An ice shield is installed along the lower edge of each shed canopy. Each monocrystalline silicon module has a rated power of 235 W and a rated efficiency of 14.4 %.