Decking Pergola with PV

[JohnMo]

Planning a new pergola on an existing decking.

It will also have two 500W solar panels in the roof section, these are to provide some rain relief above the table, and additional free (?) power. The rest of the roof will be slats at 45 degrees. These will provide a exit for wind and prevent lift and stop direct sunlight.

 

The structure will be all wood, with metal brackets as needed (£130 so far). Main posts 4" x 4", roof perimeter 6" x 2" (£120 so far). Still lots of wood left from house and summer house build, so hopefully they will contribute.

 

Max height above decking 2.4m.

Size 4.5m x 3.9m. Priced up a similar sized kit and were about £8 to 10k. Including solar, battery and all materials to make pergola looking at nearer £16 to 1700.

 

Panels 2x DMEGC 500W bifacial, mainly because they look nicer with a glass back than a normal panel with a white plastic back cover. They are £67 each. These will be connected to an Ecoflow stream Ultra battery/inverter. This comes with 4x MPPT charge controllers and a 2kWh battery. 2 MPPTs will used one for each panel, not the cheapest at £999, but includes the inverter.  The other two MPPTs will used later for another project maybe. The panels will lay flat and should generate about 560kWh per year. Not a lot but ok.

 

So far have ordered the wood to build the basics structure, all brackets for structure, PV and battery. 

[SteamyTea]

Apart from the looks, is there any performance advantage in having bifacial?

[-rick-]

Depends how much light hits the other side of the panels. If located on a dark roof, not much light will make it through (I think some does through the gaps between cells). On a angle or as a shade over a structure with light covered ground as a reflector I believe it can increase output 10-20%

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, -rick- said:

Depends how much light hits the other side of the panels

It is in Scotland.

They still celebrate a sunny day.

Nearly time for 17h 55m and the all important 47s for the sun show itself, and peaking at 56° above the horizon.

(I get 63° but only 16h 23m and 26s of daylight)

[Nickfromwales]

You can get Solarwatt panels which are frameless and less densely populated with PV, which allow more light through, if that’s of any interest / benefit?

 

They do another which is framed too, but a bit denser, still lets some light through though. 

 

You can see it here, on a gazebo / carport doodah I made for my mates solar company. This is the best pic I can find which shows it. 
 

 

The light lines under the panels are areas of clear glass with natural light coming through. 

[Nickfromwales]

The wooden table alongside it has the frameless panel as the tabletop. If you want a better pic of that I can get one? 

[JohnMo]

1 hour ago, Nickfromwales said:

Solarwatt panel frameless

Gee, they are expensive - £260 at 175Wp each. That's £1500 for the same power output as my sub £140 spend.

 

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

It is in Scotland.

They still celebrate a sunny day.

Nearly time for 17h 55m and the all important 47s for the sun show itself, and peaking at 56° above the horizon.

(I get 63° but only 16h 23m and 26s of daylight)

Around 700 miles further north makes a difference.

[Nickfromwales]

13 hours ago, JohnMo said:

Gee, they are expensive - £260 at 175Wp each. That's £1500 for the same power output as my sub £140 spend.

 

Around 700 miles further north makes a difference.

Yup. Anything “bespoke” seems to attract crazy uplift with costs, aka supply / demand, but just showing options so you can maybe source similar to suit etc.