has anyone installed solar panels on the ground. Is there considerations for how far from the house these panels can be. This would be used for tie-in into the electric meter and this is new home construction about to start.
I am also at the learning stage on all this and may do this install (panels) in the future if i cannot support the cost now.  Any tricks of the trade for ground installing to pass on to me?
Thank everyone ahead  Lisa

The most important thing is that the panels have a completely unobstructed view of the sun as it travels across the sky. That is the biggest reason panels are often pole or roof mounted. Other than that not being mounted so close to the ground they would get covered in snow (if it snows where you are) or to close to a roof that the panels heat up which reduces their output there isn’t much else to worry about.

Dual axis trackers mounts increase the amount of energy generated by 36% over a fixed mount. This will allow you to purchase fewer solar panels to generate the same amount of electricity. The additional cost of a tracker is more than offset by the decrease number and cost of the solar panels. Wattsun and Zomeworks are two brands that you might want to look at. http://www.affordable-solar.com/solar-panel-trackers.htm

While true initially that trackers will get you a total higher wattage out per $ spent. It is a moving part and needs some maintenance. I would be willing to bet over 30 years you would produce more kw's with a larger fixed array than a smaller tracking array of the same initial cost.

Having said that, it would depend a lot on location as well. If you have limited space tracking would be very beneficial. If you have more space a larger fixed array will require very little attention. Also as you move further away from the equator the benefits of tracking diminish as well. I recall reading from a max of 33% gain in the summer in the southwestern US and a minimum of 9% in the in the northeastern US in winter. Just adding panels at the same cost of a tracking system will typically increase the output between 10-30%.

The new panels are MUCH more efficient than the old panels. One can get enough panels to create 70-80% of the energy one will use in a home. This sounds great until one realizes that the cost of such a system will be between $40k and 60k.

40-60K sound like a lot and it is. Probably typical for most homes. The fundemental thing that must be done before adding PV panels is to reduce your energy consumption. The cost of panels has come down almost 50% in the last 2 years and a 4K array should cost around 24K and in an efficient home could produce all of the electrical energy you need. This of course in dependant on many factors like location, orientation and exposure. Even here in MA if you panels are located correctly you could get all of the energy your need in an efficient home.
The last home I built was done with the intention to be converted to a zero energy home, all of the efficiencies were done during the design process and followed through during construction. Orientation for passive solar gains, roof angles to maximize exposure and reduced energy loads on every element within the house. The home was completed this April and the energy usage is being monitiored over the next year, once this is done the PV system will be designed to meet these needs. If all of my energy modeling is correct the house should use need a 5-6Kw array at a cost of 30-35K and provide all of the energy needs including heating and cooling (geothermal). But here again it all starts with being efficient in your energy usage and some of this is depenedant on occupants, that is the wild card in making a zero energy home. If you have teenagers living with you and they take 30Min showers then spend an hour or two curling and drying their hair this will not work. Do you know how much energy your appances use? A kilowatt meter is a good fairly inexpensive tool to help you understand what things use energy and how much. It costs around $30 and plugs right into the outlet, then plug in your 110Ac appliance or anything and see how much energy is being used, you will be surprised. Many of the things we keep plugged in use energy even when not in use, some even as much off as on. We installed electrical outlets that were switched at the room entry way to enable the homeowner to simply flip a switch on the way out of the room and kill all of those energy sucking vampire loads. The electrical strips work well also, but how many people actually turn them off?

Back to the original post. Yes solar panels can be mounted on a ground mount system. Distance from the house isn't the biggest factor but exposure is. I do a solar pathfinder report for all of my potential installs and can get a real number on how much energy can be produced on a given site. Pretty cool tool that allows you to take a picture of the site and then analyis all of the things needed to get a true energy output. Things like shading,orientation,angles,efficiency of panels and inverters and put out a report that shows you how much energy you can expect to get before you spend a dime on panels. Well worth the $300 I charge to do this. The last person I completed this for was ready to install a 2K array and after analyzing the site, I convinced him only 60% of the site was really exceptable for PV and the rest would produce so little energy and even hurt the system as a whole (shading issue). Here is the thing with ground mounts, easy to install and maintain, even trakcing systems are easier to maintain on the ground but in my experience not worth the added expense and maintenance. They can be located anywhere you have the right solar exposure and are notlimited to your roof area. There are plenty of systems out there designed specifically for this purpose and should you decide to do this check into some of them they may make your job a lot easier. Good luck and GO SOLAR

Tom Pittsley
ecobuilder@aol.com
www.eebt.org

Tom;

      I can see why the two way trackers might be more difficult to justify, Maintenance, tracking and all that.  But how about a one way manually adjust.  It would be very easy to install braces on the back of ground mount panels that allow the owner to manuallly adjust the angle to the sun.  The 30 or so degree change over a years is easily adjusted for.  This may only get 20 percent increase over fixed, but is a cheap 20%, and no mechanical parts.  Just sweat equity.