Nice to hear from you, jebatty.
In October 2019 we added 10 kW total additional solar PV using two 5kW single-axis ground mounts (each oriented 25 degrees from direct south, in opposite directions) to our 5.3 kW fixed-tilt (south-oriented) ground mount.
I got pretty tired of brushing snow off my fixed-tilt ground-mounted array, which is why I went to the single-axis mounts for the new panels. The original PV array was equipped with Suniva panels with a fairly substantial edge that held the snow in place pretty well. I have definitely felt the pain of an ice storm followed by 10 days of subzero weather pretty much eliminating my production for two weeks or so.
The new arrays have less of an edge on the panel so they snow slides off them better, and I put them at a 50 degree (from vertical) angle in the snow season, so snow slides off pretty quickly.
I get yearly production in MWh at about a 1.15 or 1.2 factor to my panels PV kW rating. This past full year they produced about 18 MWh. The lower production factor than most is mostly due to a pretty bad lake-effect driven climate that results in a lot of cloudy weather, including the odd effect of clouds during sub-zero weather. November and December can be pretty tough for production in Central NY. Many days in a row I get 5 kWh/day production total from 15.3 kW of panels. Still, it's a pretty good testament that the technology can work anywhere if it can work in Central NY. I still get a lot of questions from people in the area asking me "do they really work here?".
I change the panel tilt about 4 or 5 times a year, and by doing so, I get enough extra production to offset the orientation from due south. FWIW, I oriented away from due south on the new arrays with the knowledge that someday net metering will be taken away (I think I have 18 years left on this in NY State) and wanted to produce a flatter hourly yield curve throughout the day and year looking ahead to when I might dispense with power line hookups and go completely off-grid (been a dream of mine for 30 years or so).
The original 5.3 kW array was sized to power the all-electric house. Half of the next 10 kW array more than satisfies 100% GSHP heating (estimated 4 MWh/year) and the other half of the 10 kW array is sized to power the first (and eventually) second EV. Right now, I'm not even putting 8,000 miles/year on my EV (estimated 2 MWh of total use), but this will probably increase again post-pandemic.
All this is for a house that is in the late stages of renovation that will become occupied in spring/summer of 2021. No electric bills for me, after that, aside from the $17 monthly hookup charge. I'm giving a lot of production back right now, but expect that in my next metering cycle I'll use about 70% of it, leaving me room for expansion into the second EV and/or more mileage on the first one.
