How to Design Dual tilt (East-West) Systems

OpenSolar's dual-tilt (east-west) design feature reflects a growing trend towards maximizing solar energy production throughout the day. Unlike traditional south or north-facing arrays, east-west configurations harness the morning and late afternoon sunlight, providing a balanced energy yield. This setup is ideal for flat roofs with space constraints or ground-mounted systems, as it allows for more panel density. In this guide, we’ll explore how to implement this design, empowering you to optimise energy production while making the most efficient use of available space.

How to

1. Navigate to the Design page for a given project.
2. Select a panel you'd like to design with, and click the '+' button to start laying them on the chosen surface. 
3. In the left hand setting menu, change the racking mode from "flush" to "dual-tilt"
4. Enter the ridge direction for appropriate azimuth (an east-west orientation has a ride direction of 180 degrees)
5. Edit the relative tilt of the array
6. Enter the "advanced settings" tab to make adjustments to the:
   1. Ridge spacing (distance between the peaks of the dual-tilt)
   2. Valley spacing (width of the walkway at the base)
   3. Module spacing (tiny gap between each individual panel)
   4. Frame spacing (distance between modules in the North/South direction, separating blocks of modules in the same row)
   5. Frame width
   6. Frame height
7. Once the above values have been inserted, make any necessary adjustments to the panel layout by adding or reducing the number of modules. 
8. Check the shading tab within the panel settings to see the shading impacts on each side of the dual-tilt system (azimuth 1 vs azimuth 2).

Example

The below screenshots display an example of an east-west system design in OpenSolar.

Basic settings menu:

Advanced settings menu:

Shading tab: