Solar Shade Analysis – SolarPlus Help Centre

Viewing and Understanding Your Solar Shading Analysis Results

SolarPlus automatically analyzes how nearby obstructions—such as buildings, trees, or terrain—affect solar energy production across your design throughout the year. Use this feature to understand expected shading losses and to include accurate shading assumptions in your reports and proposals.

Prerequisites

A completed 3D design, including roof, panels, and any surrounding obstructions
Access to the Reports and Proposals sections of your account

Factors That Affect Results

Several settings in your design and site configuration directly influence the shading results shown in your reports and proposals. Reviewing these before running (or re-running) a shading analysis will help ensure your results are accurate.

Enable Shading Analysis Toggle

In your system design, the Enable Shading Analysis toggle controls which method is used to calculate shading:

On: Runs the detailed 3D shading analysis, using the obstructions, roof surfaces, and panels in your design.
Off: Falls back to simplified monthly shade factors or the shading allowances configured for your site or business (see Minimum Shade Input and Horizon Shade below).

Obstructions

Obstructions are the buildings, trees, and other shapes you place in your 3D design under Shading & Obstructions. The shading analysis treats each obstruction as a solid object that can block sunlight from reaching nearby panels.

You can configure:

Trees: height, diameter, and height to crown
Buildings and shapes: height, width/length or radius, rotation, and whether the top is flat or follows the surface it sits on
Setback: extra distance kept clear around the obstruction, which controls where nearby panels can be placed

The accuracy of your shading results depends directly on how accurately obstructions are modeled. A missing, mis-sized, or mis-positioned obstruction will produce shading results that don't reflect the real site. If you add, resize, or move an obstruction after already generating a shading analysis, re-run the analysis to update your results.

Horizon Shade & Minimum Shade Input

Horizon Shade accounts for shading from distant obstructions—such as far-off hills, trees, or buildings—that are beyond what's modeled in your 3D design. It's configured with two values, set at the site or business level:

Horizon shade derating: the minimum amount of shading (%) assumed to come from the distant horizon
Horizon shade sun altitude: the sun height (in degrees above the horizon) below which this minimum shading is applied

In practice: whenever the sun is lower in the sky than the configured altitude—typically early morning and late afternoon—your results will show at least this much shading for that hour, even if your 3D design shows a clear line of sight. This prevents the analysis from assuming perfect, unobstructed sun at low sun angles when a site's real surroundings (beyond what's modeled) would likely block some light.

Minimum shade derating sets a floor on solar access that applies across every hour of the year, regardless of what the 3D shading analysis finds. It's set at the site or business level.

For example, a minimum shade derating of 5% means your solar access will never be reported above 95%, even for panels with no modeled obstructions nearby. This provides a conservative buffer for minor real-world shading effects that aren't captured by the 3D geometry.

Surface Modelling & Azimuth

Each roof surface in your design has its own tilt and orientation, set in the surface's properties panel:

Surface pitch: the slope of the roof itself
Panel incline: any additional tilt added by a mounting frame or rack (for example, a tilt-up frame on a flat roof)
Panel pitch: the total effective tilt used in the analysis (surface pitch plus panel incline)
Azimuth: the compass direction the surface faces

These values determine how much direct sun each surface receives across the year, independently of any obstructions. An incorrect pitch or azimuth—one that doesn't match the real roof—will skew your shading and production results even if every obstruction is modeled perfectly. Always confirm these values against your site survey before finalizing results.

Row and module spacing on the same surface also affect shading: panels placed too close together in adjacent rows can shade each other at low sun angles. Adjusting row spacing changes this self-shading effect.

Reports & Proposals

Where to View Shading Analysis Results

Go to Reports > Design Review.
Open the Insights Detail template.
Locate the solar derating table—this shows the overall production derating value caused by shading.
Below it, view the shade derating table, shown as a monthly-hourly heatmap of solar access.

Adding Shading Data to a Custom Proposal Template

Insert any of the following tags into a proposal template to display shading information:

[[shade_derating_table]] — the monthly-hourly solar access heatmap table
[[shade_derating_perc]] — the production loss percentage attributed to shading
[[pv_access_percent]] — the solar access percentage after shading (the inverse of the derating percent)

Reference & FAQs

Important Notes

Heatmap vs. Production Loss

The heatmap does not show production loss. It shows the average percentage of unobstructed sun exposure across all modules and orientations—a general view of shading, not the final derating applied to your energy output.

Early Morning & Late Afternoon Shading Impact

Heavy shading early or late in the day looks significant on the heatmap but has a smaller effect on production. Sunlight is naturally weaker at those hours, so shading during that time contributes less to the overall production derating value than the heatmap alone suggests.

Solar Access Capping Limits

Solar access values may be capped below what your 3D design alone would show. If a Horizon Shade or Minimum Shade Input is configured for your site or business, reported solar access will never exceed the limit those settings define, even in areas with little or no modeled obstruction.

Troubleshooting / FAQs

The heatmap shows a lot of shading, but the derating percentage seems low. Is this a mistake?

No—this is expected. The heatmap shows raw solar access across the day, while the derating percentage weights each hour by how much irradiance is actually available then. Heavily shaded hours with low sunlight (like early morning or late evening) have less impact on the final number.

Where do I find the exact percentage used in a specific proposal?

Check the assumptions list within that proposal, or insert the [[shade_derating_perc]] tag into a proposal template.

Can I show shading results without using the Insights Detail report?

Yes—use the proposal tags ([[shade_derating_table]], [[shade_derating_perc]], [[pv_access_percent]]) to display shading data directly in any proposal template.