- Solmetric is a company founded in 2005 that aims to improve solar systems by providing accurate shade measurement tools. - Their Solmetric SunEye is a handheld tool that measures solar access and shading with a single button press, helping determine optimal panel placement and energy production levels. - The SunEye captures skyline images at various locations and orientations that are used to calculate metrics like solar access, tilt and orientation factor, and total solar resource fraction to assess shading impacts.

5. What’s Happening Electrically? Photovoltaic I-V Curve Current Voltage Isc Voc Max power point Vmp Imp I-V curve

6. Array of Cells, Cell Strings or Modules

7. PV Module with Bypass Diodes Typical 72-cell PV Module (bypass diodes shown) +

8. Shade 2 cells in the same cell-string Single module with 72 cells and 3 bypass diodes

9. Shade 2 cells in adjacent cell-strings Single module with 72 cells and 3 bypass diodes

10. Shade Effects Example: 1 Business Card on a string of 15 modules

11. Example: Tree Shading

13. Insolation – Solar energy over time per unit area in kWh/m 2 1 kW/m 2 of irradiance for 6 hours: = 1 kW/m 2 x 6 hr = 6 kWh/m 2 of insolation Irradiance: incident solar radiation per unit area ≈ 1000 W/m 2 (1kW/m 2 ) at earth’s surface

14. San Diego insolation

15. Sun Trajectories Summer Winter Noon Sunrise Sunset

16. Annual Sunpath

17. Horizon View SunPath View Solar Access

18. Solar Resource Terms Optimum Annual Insolation TOF TSRF Solar Access Loss due to sub-optimal tilt/azimuth Loss due to shading

19. Solar Resource Example Optimum Annual Insolation TOF TSRF Solar Access Loss due to sub-optimal tilt/azimuth Loss due to shading

20. Solmetric SunEye Electronic hand-held tool that measures solar access and shading with the press of a button.

24. Annual Sunpath View View Solar Access View TOF & TSRF

26. Monthly Solar Access Single Skyline Session Average

27. Obstruction Elevation View

31. Solar Access and Shade Report

32. Shade adjusted PV design

33. Optimize Panel Placement

34. Compare Designs