How to Select the Best Location for Solar Panels

In rural areas like Caliente, where land is abundant, the answer is usually “not your roof.” Besides constraining your production capacity to the roof’s available space and orientation (we’ve seen people paying a lot more for panels because their roof faces the wrong direction), roof-mount panels can become a maintenance nightmare.

In most cases, ground-mounting is the way to go.

Helping our clients select the best location for their solar fields requires blending scientific calculation with on-the-ground circumstances and client preferences.

We often walk through the property with a client during our initial visit to understand the terrain and discuss their preferences. For example, some people don’t want to see the solar field from their windows, while others may want to reserve parts of the property for other purposes. 

We also discuss where the client may house the solar equipment and take notes of shadows cast by structures and vegetation. For example, we may discuss whether a client would cut down a tree or would rather locate the solar field in a less ideal location.

Next, we head to the drawing board and use the solar calculation software to identify the best spot(s) for solar yield. We combine that information with the client’s preferences, terrain, and the solar equipment location (closer means less loss and lower cable cost) to narrow down the options.

One of the charts we use to help identify the location, orientation, and inclination of a solar field.

For example, if achieving the highest yield requires placing panels on a rocky slope hundreds of feet from where the solar equipment will be, the additional effort to trench and install conduits may not be worthwhile. Instead, we may recommend a flat spot closer to the solar equipment and add a few hundred dollars' worth of panels to compensate for the power production differences.

Or, if the highest-yield spot is right outside a window, ruining a spectacular view, we may recommend locating the panels a couple of hundred feet away. While it adds a few hundred dollars of extra panels and cables to the cost, the long-term tradeoff is probably worth it.

There are no hard-and-fast rules or one-size-fits-all answers to where to put your solar panels. And it’s not just about maximizing yield. The equation has changed in the past few years as the price of solar panels has dropped — we can easily compensate for lower production with a few extra panels without significantly impacting cost to accommodate other considerations.

Ready to design an off-grid solar solution that starts with your preference and requirements? Let’s talk.