Presentation Details
| Comparative snow-shedding performance of landscape versus portrait orientation for photovoltaic systems Ayush Chutani1, David Wallis1, Ana Dyreson1, Laurie Burnham2, . 1Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, USA.2Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, USA |
Abstract
Snow shading of photovoltaic (PV) modules can cause significant power losses in winter, with daily losses as high as 100 percent for monofacial systems. The need to quantify differences in snow-shedding rates across different module architectures and mounting configurations is key to improving the availability and energy performance of PV systems in winter. This work will address that need by comparing snow-shedding rates and associated energy production for portrait versus landscape mounting configurations, validated across multiple experimental systems. Each system is divided into two strings, differing only in module mounting orientation, but one of the experiments has an intentional gap between its two rows of portrait modules to study a possible gap advantage. Both systems are installed at the Michigan Regional Test Center for Emerging Solar Technologies on the Keweenaw Peninsula in northern Michigan, where snow predictably occurs at least four months a year, and under a wide range of temperatures, creating ideal test conditions. The results presented in this proposal are preliminary and largely illustrative, based on limited data from March 29 to 31, 2025 on a single experiment, but they will be updated to include multiple snow events from February 2025- March 2026 with multiple experiments (different module manufacturers), enabling us to capture a full range of temperature, irradiance and snowfall conditions. Our preliminary data, however, suggests that the strings in portrait orientation array with a gap between rows clear substantially earlier than those mounted in landscape, with the portrait array reaching full clearance in about 2.5 hours, compared to about 4.5 hours for the landscape array, with the portrait array producing 23 percent higher DC power during the recovery window. Our data from this winter will enable us to share a definitive breakdown of performance based on both orientation and the presence and/or absence of a gap.
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
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