Hi @Rebecca_Batton,
OptiTrac has been around for a long time. Despite the very nice marketing video that SMA has about it, from the limited info that I’ve heard about it, it does not sound like it makes a big difference in the real world. I haven’t heard any installers suggest going for an SMA Sunny Boy because of it.
If you’ve got serious shading issues, I think you should look at panel level optimisation (Tigo, SolarEdge, Enphase). There are a few people on this forum that are big proponents of Enphase, and argue that they will offer you the best return on investment long term. There’s many others who strongly back Fronius.
Checkout our inverter articles on SMA, Fronius, Enphase and SolarEdge here:
If you’re interested in micro inverters, this topic will be useful:
Hope that helps
Marty