Local Knowledge About Panels And Mountings

Different types and sizes of PV panels will produce different amounts of power. The rated output wattage of the panel is the amount of watts the panel will create in one hour of direct sun. PV arrays must be placed to receive the most sunlight. There are several ways to mount the panels - fixed, fixed with adjustable tilt angles, manual tracking, passive tracking, and active trackers. All of these mounting approaches can be placed on the ground or on a roof except for some active trackers which are pole mounted and thus more suited for a ground mount. Passive trackers are typically freon activated to track the sun from east to west only (there is no automatic tilt angle change). Active trackers draw a very small amount of power from the PV panels (as low as one watt) and mechanically track from east to west and adjust to the proper tilt angle.

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