The utility-scale PV market is poised for exponential growth and yet the industry still has many fundamental opportunities to improve on standards and best practice. Tracker shade loss is one of those topics that deserve more attention, but it has been typically handled by derate factors rather than trying to accurately forecast the loss over the life of the system. This has led to a majority of projects in the industry underperforming against plant yield expectations and yet the low hanging fruit of more accurate financial modeling of plants is not being explored.
The industry needs to take a closer look at shade modeling, as project portfolios are primed to grow in number and investors and owners need scalable ways to reduce risk and be able to rely on the forecast return on investment.
Nextracker collaborated with PV Tech and DNV to host a webinar on shade modeling for utility-scale solar PV projects, discussing tracker shade loss and its potential remedies.
