vertical PV

Sud Renovables has installed a pilot vertical rooftop PV system on one of its facilities in Barcelona, Spain. The array features two 500 W bifacial modules from US-based SunPower and two microinverters from Enphase Energy.

A Dutch research team has created a new approach to simulate the performance of vertical bifacial photovoltaic farms. The novel methodology considers design parameters and energy market conditions.

New tests conducted by the Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute have shown that vertical PV installations offer improved fire safety compared to conventional diagonal or flat solar arrays. The experiment showed, in particular, how rapidly a fire can propagate under inclined panels.

New research from the European Commission shows the huge potential of both monofacial and bifacial vertical PV when deployed along roads and rails. Their analysis reflected the limitation imposed by the road or rail direction at a given location for the orientation of the PV systems.

Developed by a US-Saudi research group, the novel technique employs two 45-degree inclined mirrors on the two sides of a PV module. On the back side, a spectral selective reflector enables the thermal radiation to be directed to the sky while preventing the back of a module from heating up by the scattered sunlight.

Sunstall has developed a vertical PV system that facilitates energy production in space-limited areas. It is the first system of its kind to secure certification from Underwriters Laboratories (UL) for the US market

K2 Systems and Solarmotion deployed the vertical array on a retaining wall along a car road in the Swiss canton of Appenzell Ausserhoden. The system utilizes 756 glass-glass modules and is operating under Switzerland’s feed-in tariff program.

A Finnish-Norwegian research group has investigated model chains for horizontal-to-vertical solar irradiance conversion in east-west oriented vertical PV systems located at high latitudes. They have found that accuracy and bias of the model chains are different for the east and west sides of solar array.

Scientists in the Netherlands have sought to understand the reason for unexpected gains in vertical PV systems and found that these installations have a much higher heat transfer coefficient than their horizontally deployed counterparts.

Solyco, a PV system specialist, has deployed a 12.64 kW vertical PV rooftop system made with glass-glass bifacial tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) modules in Hannover, Germany. It also installed a 10 kW vertical array in Hamburg.