Setting up my solar system

CA Traveler wrote:
Serial va parallel with significant panel shade makes no difference. The difference which is often not understood is partial shade with bypass diodes. My panels have 3 bypass diodes so I call that 3 sections. If one section has shade it's bypass diode shorts out that section, "shorted" meaning the panel still produces the amps at 2/3 the voltage. Fast forward to 3x panels with 9 panel sections. One shaded section and I have 8/9 the power, 2 is 7/9, 3 is 6/9 equivalent to 1 parallel panel out of action. If the 3 shaded sections are on 2 panels then it's 2/3 for serial and 1/3 for parallel. I know this can be a lot to digest. And for the technical I'm aware I've glossed over the very small voltage loss for "shorted" (actually reversed biased) diodes.

I've posted MPPT 60 charging graphs with partial shade. For simpicity 9 sections and 90V or 10V per section. The graphs clearly show the 10V changes as the partial shade changes. One shows charging at 20V increasing in 10V increments as the sun rises and the shade changes (this was leafy shade). The MPPT 60 app produces the csv file and Excel the graphs for reference.

Thanks for the detailed reply.

In the part of your post that I bolded, you're saying that you lose more in parallel than series with partial shading. I'm assuming you mean it would be 2/3 in parallel and 1/3 in series, if keeping with the working panels/total panels ratios, right?