Oversizing PV arrays: How far should you go?

摘要

The price of solar modules has dropped to the level where consumers are now looking for ways to increase their system yield without outlaying the costs necessary to build large systems.Array oversizing refers to solar photovoltaic (PV) systems designed so that the solar array has a higher peak capacity than the inverter. Due to intrinsic losses (such as from the solar panels' thermal coefficient), a solar system of a given installed capacity may deliver up to 20% less than the nameplate rating of the array. If the number of installed modules is increased, the inverter's yield in relation to the PV array power output during times of low irradiance (e.g. early or late in the day or during cloudy periods) will increase.