Wind load for vertical bifacial rooftop installations
Vertical solar installations are exposed to other wind loads than conventional flat or low-angle solar installations. With advanced simulation tools and wind tunnel tests the effect of wind can be explored and understood.
Methods and main findings
Real life testing
Our research installations are exposed to real weather conditions to learn about challenges that are hard to simulate or replicate in the lab.
CFD simulations
Using computational wind simulations we efficiently explore wind patterns and the effect of wind on different geometries and configurations.
Wind tunnel experiments
Wind tunnel experiments explore extreme winds and turbulence events that are impossible to simulate and occur very rarely in real life.
Real life testing
We've installed vertical solar panel research installations on rooftops in different climates from Tromsø in the north of Norway to Alicante in Spain.
The installations have withstood storms and heavy weather, and for some installations we closely monitor the actual wind conditions.
Computational fluid dynamics
With CFD simulations we can explore different configurations and wind load situations in a controlled "virtual lab".
CFD simulations performed by Fraunhofer ISE on real size systems show that, even at wind speeds of up to 47 m/s, no lift is expected for the configuration of Over Easy Solar's vertical PV rooftop solution.
Wind tunnel experiments
Wind tunnel measurements on miniatures with a turbulent wind flow provide a basis for certification according to European building standards. The model vertical PV systems are mounted on different building types to obtain results that can be generalized. Several of the model's single PV panels are monitored for pressure as a result of applied wind.
Wind tunnel tests on a 1:50 scale model equipped with 360 pressure taps were performed in a large boundary layer wind tunnel laboratory at I.F.I. Aachen.
Ballast free VPV units
Learn more about the VPV Unit from Over Easy Solar