Ground mount designs are more expensive and complex and require more engineering than flush mounted systems. Solar designers need to be extra careful when designing these systems as there are several variables that if not tuned properly can result in significant space being wasted or the investment operating sub-optimally. One of the main variables in ground mount designs is tilt angle. Are solar designers picking optimal tilt angles properly? In this video, I create a simple geometric model that marries installation and real estate costs such that we can now easily pick an optimal solution that minimizes the system’s total cost. Let’s dig into deriving the optimal tilt angle for solar panels.