Jfet wrote:
DWeikert wrote:
This is very dated information. Most solar panels today use blocking diodes so shade over a single cell only affects that cell, not the whole panel.
Bypass diodes, and generally they only use about three, which means partial shading can still shut off 1/3 or more of your panel (depending on the orientation of the shadow).
An exception would be the Unisolar rollout, where they do indeed bypass each cell panel.
You're right, they're bypass, not blocking. Still, I think your info is dated. For example, the Kyocera 140w panel I installed 2 years ago has 8 bypass diodes.