DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

I believe we’ve fixed the shading problem reported last Fall — which practically zeroes my PV array’s output at 5:00 PM, with one hour of valuable peak-period sunlight remaining in the day.

The photo from September is difficult to make sense of. The trees on the left side of the image are tall Eucalyptus on the edge of the property, a few hundred feet from the roof. The lighter green foliage on the right 60% of the picture is attached to three birch trees planted adjacent to the house. It’s impossible to tell from the picture, but the sun is behind both.

The arborist returned this week to execute the plan from last Fall: trim the tops of the distant Eucalyptus and the nearby birch trees. We didn’t have to take any trees down, and fortunately for my breakeven date we only had to trim one Eucalyptus — those trees are tall.

The lower image shows what looks like success — a great big hole in the treeline for the sun to shine through. We’ll know next Fall whether we’re still generating electricity after 5:00 PM.