Difference Ground Clearance Height vs. Standoff height

Dear,
I am running a PV simulation to determine PV Yields on a building.
It is unclear for me what the difference is between Standoff height in "Mounting configuration"  and "Ground clearance height" in "Bifacial".
To my understanding, both describe the same characteristic of the PV module setup but I guess my understanding is wrong.
Can someone help out?


Thank you,
Jaap

Hi Jaap,

The "ground clearance height" is an input to the bifacial model. SAM uses that input in equations for the amount of irradiance on the rear side of a bifacial module.

The "mounting standoff" is an input to the cell temperature model. SAM uses that input for cell and module temperature calculations.

The inputs are different because of the history of the model's development, and the way the submodels are implemented.

There are similar potential inconsistencies with the inputs on the Shading and Layout page. This is something we'd like to fix when we can. In the meantime, you'll need to make sure those inputs are consistent.

Best regards,
Paul.

Hello Paul,
Thank you for the explanation!