Solar Panels On East West Facing Roof

I would be grateful for any thoughts suggestions on the direction to face solar panels.

Solar panels on east west facing roof.

It really depends on your home and your roof but adding panels to an unshaded west facing roof can be a great move. You also can mount solar panels on roofs that face east or west on the roof of another building like a barn or garage or on the ground. Therefore directions like southwest or southeast are fine. Panels mounted on a standard pitch roof facing east or west will produce approximately 15 less output than panels mounted on a south facing roof of a standard pitch.

For example an east facing roof will be exposed to sunlight in the morning whereas a west facing roof will take in more sunlight in the afternoon and evenings. East and west facing roofs are also suitable for solar panels and will still see a good deal of energy generation throughout the course of the day. Solar arrays that are situated east west can squeeze in more rows and panels and therefore a greater generation capacity than their south or north facing cousins. Of course you cannot install east west facing solar panels on your roof if it does not already slant in those directions.

If you look back to systems that were built a few years ago you would typically find them facing south says david wedepohl director of communications and markets at the german solar industry association bsw. If the east facing panels still produce plenty of energy from the morning and early afternoon sun the west facing panels would likely produce energy from mid morning on.