Recent content by mongotuslan

The lower power in the middle of the day is due to the single axis oriented horizontally, North to South, so there is Cosine effect due to the Sun angle at Noon from the Latitude. At some time during the morning and afternoon, the single axis tracking will align the panel normal to the Sun...

I agree that cost effectiveness for a terrestrial PV solar energy installation favors favors fixed flat panels. I have such an array on the roof over my head. When I drive across town, I see many utility scale solar installations with a single axis tracking system. This improves power...

Retired engineer.

This gets to the heart of the trade off between tracking panel arrays and fixed panel arrays. Fixed panels are subject to the Cosine effect or Cosine error which reduces the effective power incident by the Cosine of the angle from normal. In space, where the day/night cycle is irrelevant...