There is a better way to deal with shade.
More yield with SMA ShadeFix.
Read our technical information
The showdown with shade.
The Prize: Higher Yield.
Trees are to be protected at all cost, even when causing shading. Dormers and chimneys - certainly nice and useful things. But not when it comes to your PV system. Anything standing between the sun and your solar panels can minimize your energy yield due to shading. Something has to be done. Without demolishing all of it at once. You want to avoid costly and time-consuming installations of power optimizers. Especially since additional installations increase the failure risk of your PV system - but don’t necessarily increase your energy yield.
Sometimes the solution is rather extreme.
And sometimes it's obvious.
Right inside your inverter. High energy yield despite shading. No effort, no costs. Sounds like a great idea? Well, it is. SMA’s intelligent ShadeFix shade management is already integrated into SMA solar inverters. Additional installations as with conventional power optimizers are not necessary. The system responds effectively to shading. The power of your solar panels is optimized at its best; the risk of failure of your PV system is minimized. And we’ve saved the best for last: SMA ShadeFix is pre-activated in SMA solar inverters. At no additional cost. High yield is guaranteed.
More yield at the flip of a switch.
Let shade fade.
SMA ShadeFix increases the energy yield of your PV system under standard shading conditions. This makes SMA ShadeFix the most efficient solution for increasing the power of shaded solar panels in the most common cases. We ensure this by the systematic improvement of our inverter technology.
If PV systems are affected by very strong shading, even the best solution often achieves no additional yield. These are, nevertheless, exceptional situations. In all other cases, you can count on SMA ShadeFix.
How SMA ShadeFix works
Here you can find answers to frequently asked questions
SMA ShadeFix is our software-based shade management system. Commonly this feature is used in systems with light to medium shading. Your energy yield is optimized without adding any further components to the system or PV modules. SMA ShadeFix is already integrated into SMA solar inverters and activated automatically during commissioning. There are no additional costs because SMA ShadeFix is an integral part of the operation management of almost all SMA solar inverters.
SMA ShadeFix uses an intelligent and proven MPP tracking system for many years to determine the operating point with the highest output during shading conditions. With SMA ShadeFix, SMA solar inverters use the best possible energy supply from the PV modules at all times to increase yield in shaded systems.
SMA ShadeFix optimizes the energy yield in systems during standard shading conditions. This makes SMA ShadeFix the ideal solution in most shading situations to make the best use of the available power of the PV modules. SMA ShadeFix is a software-based solution and is already integrated into SMA solar inverters. As with conventional power optimizers, additional installation efforts are not required. The advantage of this is a minimized risk of failure of the entire system. The costs for system planning and assembly are kept low. SMA ShadeFix is an integral part of the inverter operation management, included in the acquired scope of services of almost all SMA solar inverter. Further acquisition costs, as with other power optimizers, are no longer necessary and the amortization period of the system is not unnecessarily extended.
SMA ShadeFix is based on shade management system OptiTrac Global Peak. In the future, SMA will place an even stronger focus on this feature and the ongoing technical development of this solution for shade management. For this reason, we have decided to reposition the feature in the market and give it the attention it deserves.
SMA ShadeFix is available in almost all current SMA solar inverters (see inverter manual or technical datasheet). The parameter name may not yet be shown in the user interface. However, the feature is fully available since SMA ShadeFix is activated by default.
From September 2019, all updatable SMA solar inverters with OptiTrac Global Peak will successively receive a firmware update The feature is updated automatically. The status of the feature remains the same and no further settings are required.
The feature is activated by default in current SMA solar inverters If necessary, the time interval at which the inverter determines the optimum operating point can be adjusted via the user interface (see inverter manual). No further settings are necessary.
Efficiently increasing the energy yield of shaded PV systems.
Download our technical information now.
Download PDF