wwhitney
Senior Member
- Location
- Berkeley, CA
- Occupation
- Retired
I don't see that as a particularly meaningful point in terms of tradeoffs. Panel size is arbitrary.If you start with a given DC size and a DC/AC ratio of 1, and lower the inverter size, you will lose increasing losses to clipping. There will be a point at which the inverter produces less energy from the last module in the array than it clips. That's the equivalent point of diminishing returns going in that direction.
I took that as a purely electrical statement. E.g. that depending on the inverter efficiency curve, it's possible that having, say, 0.01% annual clipping losses would give you a greater total annual production, as improved efficiency in the shoulders would yield more than 0.01% annual improved production. Not sure if that's really possible, obviously it's not if inverter efficiency is constant across all input power levels below nameplate.Remember the question is whether "clipping losses ... are ... made up for ... by increased production".
Now the economics are a different story. My posts that haven't mentioned dollars or economics explicitly were statements without consideration of cost.
Cheers, Wayne