I am hoping to find a solution to the issue I have on hand.

I have two strings of 8 panels, 550 Watt Longi. The string positioned to take best advantage of the early morning sun is being hampered by shading due to the string being split in two on top of a carport. The back string is shaded by the front from sunrise now in winter till around 11am.

I need to raise the back 4 panels in a safe and secure manner to overcome the reduction in solar production due to the throttling effect.

Some advice and a possible installer for a solution here in Roodepoort would be appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

Edited June 21, 20251 yr by XL1000
Autocorrect

Can you give us some more info:

• Does the carport have a flat roof, or is it slanted - if slanted, what is the approximate inclination?

• What type of roofing do you have?

If strong enough, you could make some brackets from angle iron, or possibly even wood, to lift and angle your rear panels, and mount then on your roof / trusses. This would be easy if you have a flat roof, covered with IBR sheeting, on your carport. Also, if the carport abuts an external wall (e.g. your garage wall), you could mount some angle-iron "triangles" to mount the rear panels on...

Edited June 21, 20251 yr by HennieL

If it's trees on your property an chain saw is the best solution but if it neighbours trees like by me were my 9 panel get from 16:00 in winter shading and neighbours don't care much for my problems as they don't have solar then really apart from moving the panels you really stuck .

I am off grid so 16 :00 shading makes the nights so much longer on batteries .

On 2025/06/21 at 7:16 PM, HennieL said:

Can you give us some more info:

• Does the carport have a flat roof, or is it slanted - if slanted, what is the approximate inclination?

• What type of roofing do you have?

If strong enough, you could make some brackets from angle iron, or possibly even wood, to lift and angle your rear panels, and mount then on your roof / trusses. This would be easy if you have a flat roof, covered with IBR sheeting, on your carport. Also, if the carport abuts an external wall (e.g. your garage wall), you could mount some angle-iron "triangles" to mount the rear panels on...

Right, it's a flat roof and it's two rows of panels. The first row is too close to the second and causes shading as shown.
The purple line indicated the area of shading.

What is the angle at the moment? Looks close to 40 degrees to me.

Can't your brackets allow you to lower the front rows angle a bit to minimize/stop shading?

On 2025/06/21 at 6:29 PM, XL1000 said:

I am hoping to find a solution to the issue I have on hand.

I have two strings of 8 panels, 550 Watt Longi. The string positioned to take best advantage of the early morning sun is being hampered by shading due to the string being split in two on top of a carport. The back string is shaded by the front from sunrise now in winter till around 11am.

I need to raise the back 4 panels in a safe and secure manner to overcome the reduction in solar production due to the throttling effect.

Some advice and a possible installer for a solution here in Roodepoort would be appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

Some information on the inverter specs. Are the solar array connected is series to a single mppt?, or do you have multiple mppt's available?

Root of your Problem!

At 36°~40° tilt, (flat roof) east-facing panels cast long morning shadows in winter (when the sun is low in the northeast). The eastern most string shades the adjacent western string, particularly the lower 1 or 2 panels, during critical early sun hours. With 4 panels per string in series(8S1P), shading 1 panel can reduce the entire string’s output by 25–50%, depending on bypass diode layout and MPPT behavior.

You have 3 options.

1. Slightly Stagger or Lower the East String (if feasible) physically shift the front (eastern) string lower or forward so its shadow falls off-roof or hits the ground, or reduce its tilt slightly to cast a shorter shadow. Works best if the rows are very close and there’s flexibility to adjust racking.

2. If your inverter has 2 x MPPTs, consider:

Keeping the shaded (rear) string on its own MPPT, and putting the front (unshaded) string on another. This isolates shading impact to only one MPPT tracker.

3. Add DC Optimizers to the Shaded Panels

4. 1 hour ago, TaliaB said:

   You have 3 options.

   1. Slightly Stagger or Lower the East String (if feasible) physically shift the front (eastern) string lower or forward so its shadow falls off-roof or hits the ground, or reduce its tilt slightly to cast a shorter shadow. Works best if the rows are very close and there’s flexibility to adjust racking.

   2. If your inverter has 2 x MPPTs, consider:

   Keeping the shaded (rear) string on its own MPPT, and putting the front (unshaded) string on another. This isolates shading impact to only one MPPT tracker.

   3. Add DC Optimizers to the Shaded Panels

   Or 4. Move one of the strings to your house roof. Looks like a bright, sunny roof in the middle of the two shaded areas...

or 5.

If none of the above,

Change the rear panels orientation to landscape.

@HennieL At that roof angle i don't think even a bobjaan will try it.🤣

Edited June 25, 20251 yr by Virwat

58 minutes ago, Virwat said:

@HennieL At that roof angle i don't think even a bobjaan will try it.🤣

😄🤣😂

Thank you for all the replies and the suggestions.

The system is an 8Kw Sunsynk and these have two MPPT's. Currently each running 1 string of 8 panels in series. I have another carport with two rows of four panels matching the first carport where the shading occurs.
If there was space to put more distance between the two rows of four, I would do so. I can lower the front row, to what loss on the front I am unsure, but this is easy enough to give a go and monitor for a few days.
Ideally, I'd like to have someone build a frame in lightweight material, strong enough to support the four back panels, and lift them all vertically out of the shaded zone.

Let me give lowering the front four a try and see how that plays out.

If you want/must go the higher frame route, I suggest measuring the needed lift now at the lower end of that row. (June solstice)

Had a similar problem at my parents house

Front row was casting a shadow on the 2nd road, the solution was to lower the angle massively and slide the panels forward.

As you can see in the above, it over hangs the IBR roof slightly which isnt ideal, and at the lower angle, there is some lost efficiency, however, this is made up by the considerable increase in performance from not having shading on the rear 5 panels.

Having gone and looked at my panels again this morning, I can say with sadness that the brackets used are not adjustable and I would have to cut them to lower the panels.
I am therefore going to engineer a plan to space the front and back row further apart. It will require loostening of all the brackets, inserting aluminum carriers, and then reattaching at the right distance from each other.
At the same time, I will raise the rear four panels around 250mm above roof height by extending the brackets.

Edited June 25, 20251 yr by XL1000

Pity.☹️

Before ripping all off for a rebuild, make sure about your angles.

Also have a look at Connect-it fittings. Maybe you can use them to alter your existing framework to suit.