Why Oversizing Solar Panel Arrays Is A Smart

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August 9, 2016 by Ronald Brakels 17 Comments

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Did you know you can add panels up to 133% of your inverter capacity? Read on to discover why oversizing solar is a
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smart move (as long as your roof is big enough unlike this guys).

Installing rooftop solar systems with a total panel capacity greater than the inverter
capacity is usually a very good idea. It will certainly save you money, but it can also
help get around the restrictions many Australians face on the size of inverter they
can connect to the grid.
If you want to work out the total panel capacity of a rooftop solar system it is very
simple. Just multiply the number of panels by a single panels rated capacity
in watts.
Finding the total capacity of an inverter is even easier. It will be written on it
somewhere. On a 4,000 watt inverter youll find something along the lines of, P AC
norm 4000W. Or you could just look it up online.
It is very common in Australia for the total capacity of solar panels in an array to be
the same as the capacity of the inverter. This has the advantage that energy will
never, or almost never, be lost because of the panels producing more power than the
inverter can use. But this is not much of an advantage.
Because panels rarely produce as much power as their rated capacity it is possible
to add extra panels with very little power being lost. And the extra panel capacity can
help the inverter to run at a higher average efficiency which can almost entirely make
up for what is lost.
When the total capacity of the solar panels is greater than that of the inverter the
panels are usually said to be oversized or the inverter overclocked. But because I
think it makes a lot of sense, I tend to think of it as right sized.
Oversizing your solar panels can save you a modest amount of money. But the real
advantage lies in increasing your energy production when your local grid
operator limits the inverter size you can install. For example, in some locations
people with single phase power are limited to installing inverters of under 5 kilowatts,
many people in rural areas are can only install inverters of 5 kilowatts or less unless
they pay for export limiting equipment or an export limiting inverter, and in
Queensland inverters larger than 3 kilowatts can only be installed if they
have reactive power control.
You can overclock your inverter by up to 133% and still receive financial assistance
in the form of Small-scale Technology Certificates, or STCs, as part of the Solar
Rebate. But if you go even 1 Watt over the 133% limit, your application for STCs can
be refused.
The solar rebate can cover up to half the cost of your system, so it is vitally important
not to go over this limit if you like money.
Your Inverter Determines The Maximum Panel Capacity
The size of the rebate (i.e. the number of STCs) received depends upon the number
of solar panels you install, and that is determined by the size of the inverter.
According to section 9.4 of of the Clean Energy Councils Grid-Connected Solar PV
Systems Design Guidelines the total panel capacity cannot exceed the total inverter
capacity by more than one-third. So if you have a 3 kilowatt inverter you cannot have
more than 4 kilowatts of solar panels and still receive the rebate/STCs.
This appears to be a cast-iron rule. You may quite reasonably think that if you have a
system where the panels exceeded the size of the inverter by more than one-third
you could claim STCs for the panels that are below the limit, but this is apparently not
the case and will result in you receiving no STCs at all. I dont know why they felt the
need to stop people paying for extra solar panels out of their own pocket, but after I
die Ill be sure to find their particular circle of hell and ask them.
Your Inverter Can Handle The Extra Panel Capacity
Any inverter you can buy in Australia should be able to handle a total panel capacity
one-third larger than its own without problem. Provided the system is properly
designed, they have no problems greatly exceeding this limit safely.
What inverter manufacturers care about is that the voltage and current entering the
inverter never at any point exceed their specified limits. Because it is not good when
that happens. But when properly installed an inverter attached to panels with one-
third greater capacity will never exceed these limits and so inverter manufacturers
are fine with it.
If you want to see what you can get away with you can go to the Sunny Design
Site for SMA Inverters, click on New Project, and fool around with different panel
configurations and inverters and see what it takes before it indicates you have
created an overload.
Overclocking your Inverter Can Improve Average Inverter
Efficiency
Modern inverters usually operate at a high and fairly constant efficiency level.
However, when solar panels are supplying less than around 25% of an inverters
capacity their efficiency takes a hit. This is demonstrated below by the SMA Sunny
Boy inverter efficiency curve graph that I stole, I mean, that I am paying homage to,
below:
This graph shows how inverter efficiency can fall when solar panels arent providing much power. (Image credit SMA.)
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As you can see, when panels are supplying more than 30% of an inverters capacity
its output is fairly constant. But when input power falls below this, and especially
when it falls below 15%, an inverters efficiency declines. When panels are
oversized the inverter will spend less time operating at lower efficiency in weak
sunlight and this improved average efficiency helps compensate for electricity lost
when the panel array output exceeds the inverters capacity.
Warning: A 5000 Inverter May Not Be A 5,000 Watt
Inverter
Some inverter manufacturers appear to have real problems counting higher than
4,000.
For example, SMA, despite making what may be the best inverters you can buy, has
a real problem. Their Sunny Boy 3000TL is a 3,000 watt inverter and their Sunny
Boy 4000TL is a 4,000 watt inverter, but their Sunny Boy 5000TL is a 4,600 watt
inverter. This is really quite a pity because they were doing so well matching the
names of their inverters to their capacity up till then.
Growatt also has a similar problem, as the Growatt 5000MTL is also a 4,600 watt
inverter. In this case they say it can be a 5,000 watts as an option. So I guess it all
depends on if the employee who can count that high happens to be working on that
particular day.
And also be aware that the 5 in Sungrows SG 5KTL-M inverter doesnt stand for 5
kilowatts. Its a 4,600 watt inverter too.
So always be sure to check what the nominal AC output power is on their datasheet.
You can find the datasheet on the internet. Or if you cant find it that is the internets
way of telling you to choose another inverter.
What Determines Total Panel Capacity
The total capacity of your solar panels is their nameplate capacity multiplied by how
many of them you have. And when I say nameplate, their capacity in watts is usually
in their name. For example, the capacity of the Phono Solar PS260P-20/U panel is
260 watts as that is what the first three digits refer to.
So if you have one dozen PS260P-20/U panels the total solar panel capacity would
be 3,120 watts. This will often be referred to as 3.12 kilowatts.
Panel Size Affects How Much You Can Oversize
You may decide you want to oversize your panels as much as you can and still
receive STCs and make their total capacity exactly 133% larger than your inverter.
But in practice this will often be hard to achieve because the capacity of individual
solar panels is a fixed number. For example, if you have a 3 kilowatt inverter and you
want to oversize your panels by 133% to 4 kilowatts and you are using 270 watt
panels, the closest you will be able to get is 14 panels totaling 3.78 kilowatts. You
cant get any closer as adding one more panel will take you over the 133% limit.
It is never a good idea to try to fill in a gap by using one small panel or cutting a
larger panel in half.
It would be possible to get closer to the limit by using 260 watt panels and installing
15 of them. Or the same result could be achieved by using 300 watt panels and
installing 13 of them. Or you could hit the target exactly by using 250 watt panels.
In practice you are probably far better off just selecting a high quality panel and not
worrying if you cant quite max out your panel capacity as much as youd like.
The Pros And Cons Of Oversizing Panel Capacity
Under good conditions when the sky is clear, the sun is shining directly onto the
panels, and it is not too hot, oversized solar panel arrays will produce more DC
power than their inverter can turn into AC power and this results in the excess power
being lost.
When this occurs it is often said the inverter output is clipped. What this can look
like is shown by the graphic below which I acquired from an SMA inverter brochure.
The clipped output of a solar system with oversized panels. (Image credit SMA)
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As you can see, a 9 kilowatt inverter is unable to supply more than 9 kilowatts of AC
power and the excess is clipped off, causing the AC output to plateau. But this is
an extreme example as the panels are 166.7% the size of the inverter. Unless you
want to pay through the nose, or possibly some other orifice, you cant go over 133%
and still receive STCs.
While it is unfortunate that some power goes to waste, oversizing the system has a
number of advantages. When conditions arent good the system will produce more
power than it otherwise would making its output more consistent. This can help
increase self consumption of solar electricity which is an important consideration now
that high feed-in tariffs are a thing of the past for most Australians. As mentioned
earlier, it can result in the inverter operating at a higher average efficiency and using
a smaller inverter can potentially save money.
Inverter Lifespan
An inverter in a system with oversized panels will on average spend more time
operating at its full capacity, which means it will spend more time operating at a high
temperature and heat is bad for electronic devices. On the other hand, its
temperature should be more constant which will reduce expansion and contraction
from thermal cycling which is also bad for electronics. Overall I would expect
inverters with oversized panels to have their average lifespan slightly reduced. But I
dont think the loss of life would be very significant and inverter manufacturers dont
seem very worried about it. For example Ive never known one to base the cost of
their extended warranty on whether or not the inverter is part of a system with
oversized panels.
Performance Comparison Using PVwatts
I used the PVwatts site to compare the performance of systems with oversized
panels with systems where panel and inverter capacity are equal. I find PVwatts
gives results that are fairly accurate for Australia. This makes it a useful tool and it is
very nice of the United States to let us use it for free. And that whole stopping
Imperial Japan thing is also appreciated.
Earlier I mentioned the existence of 4.6 kilowatt inverters when I described how
some inverter manufacturers have trouble counting to high numbers. If one of these
inverters has its panels oversized by 130.44% it will have 6 kilowatts of panels. And
if I assume 250 or 300 watt panels are used it can hit that amount exactly.
Pwatts told me how many kilowatt-hours the following systems would produce in a
year when installed on a north facing roof in Sydney:

Overclocking your inverter loses almost no energy production over 1 year

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According to PVwatts a 4.6 kilowatt inverter with 6 kilowatts of panels produces
29.9% more electricity than a 4.6 kilowatt inverter with 4.6 kilowatts of panels. That
is very good result given it only has 30.44% more solar panel capacity.
What is very impressive is a 6 kilowatt inverter with 6 kilowatts of panels will only
produce around 0.4% more electricity over a year than a 4.6 kilowatt inverter with 6
kilowatts of panels.
For panels that are facing east or west in Sydney PVwatts indicates there is almost
no difference in output between a 4.6 kilowatt inverter with 6 kilowatts of panels and
a 6 kilowatt inverter with 6 kilowatts of panels.
The table below shows the output of systems in Australian capitals with panels that
are oversized by 130.44% as a percentage of the output they would produce if they
were not oversized. The results for both north facing and west facing systems are
shown and are rounded to the nearest percentage point.

Capital North Facing West Facing

Adelaide 99% 100%

Brisbane 100% 100%

Canberra 100% 100%

Darwin 100% 100%

Hobart 100% 100%

Melbourne 100% 100%

Perth 100% 100%

 Sydney 100% 100%
As you can see the output is almost the same in every city.
While I knew oversizing panels made sense, these results are actually better than I
expected, so I checked the results with an Australian made program, PVsell, and got
almost exactly the same result.
Reducing Your Inverter Size Wont Save Too Much Money
Because systems with oversized panels perform so well with next to no loss of
performance, this means households could save money by using a smaller and less
expensive inverter and still produce almost the same amount of electricity.
Unfortunately, with current inverter prices, this isnt likely to save you much money.
From an installers point of view, providing a customer with a 4.6 kilowatt inverter and
oversizing it with 6 kilowatts of panels takes exactly as much effort as installing a 6
kilowatt inverter and 6 kilowatts of panels. The only thing they are doing differently is
installing a smaller inverter and that doesnt save them any work at all. Sure, it might
weigh a little less and be easier to lift, but solar installers tend to be mighty so they
are not going to consider that worthy of a discount.
Because the effort is the same the only money saved will be on the cost of the
inverter and these days that is not likely to be much. The difference in price between
an inverter and one that is around a third larger is usually very small. For an installer
the difference between what they pay for a 3,000 watt inverter and a 4,000 watt one
can be as little as $100. That will reduce the cost of most installations by less than
1.5%.
But Oversizing Panels Does Get Around Restrictions On
Inverter Size
In many places in Australia there are restrictions that effectively limit the size of solar
inverters that can be installed. Why there are so many restrictions is hard for me to
understand because here in South Australia we can normally install inverters of up to
10 kilowatts without any problem.
Actually, its not really true that I dont understand why there are restrictions. I think I
actually understand very well. But because Ive resolved to do less swearing in
these articles I wont go into the reasons why they exist.
To give just some examples, unless they want to pay extra for special inverters or
equipment, many people in rural areas are limited to installing a 5 kilowatt inverter.
People with single phase power in the Ausgrid network area, such as in Sydneys
eastern suburbs, can only install inverters that are under 5 kilowatts. And in
Queensland Energex makes it difficult to install inverters that are larger than 3
kilowatts.
But by oversizing solar panels a home with a 3 kilowatt inverter can have 4 kilowatts
of panels, a 4.6 kilowatt inverter can have 6.13 kilowatts of panels, and a 5 kilowatt
inverter can have 6.66 kilowatts of panels, and still produce practically the same
amount of electricity as if the inverter had the same capacity as the solar panels.
While potentially saving a little money on your inverter is nice, getting around
restrictions on inverter size is where oversizing solar panels is really useful.