Are Series Connected Module Strings Factored Into 3D Shading Losses?

[mmwerner]

I have a 3D scene involving maybe three dozen rows of single axis trackers, with a handful of utility poles not far to the south. When I run the model, I can see the shadows from the poles passing across large portions of the array. However, these poles only reduce the specific production by 3 points, which seems absurdly small for a shadow that covers modules along multiple trackers at once. Particularly with these shadows being counted as 100% opaque, shouldn't multiple strings be taken offline fairly consistently? Wouldn't that result in a greater impact?

The only potential conclusion I have come to is that the simulation may not be accounting for the whole string going down, and is only factoring in the impact that the shadow has on that individual module. Does anyone have more information on this?

Thanks!

[André Mermoud]

The "linear" shading loss (irradiance deficit) is probably not very important in your case.

If you want to evaluate the electrical losses, you have to use the option "Shadings according to Module strings", or "Module layout".