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When panels are cheap what about vertical mounting? Less susceptible to hail and snow. And maybe placed north-south, to maximize production in morning and even
by rini17 1y ago
When panels are cheap what about vertical mounting? Less susceptible to hail and snow. And maybe placed north-south, to maximize production in morning and evening when it's needed most.
- jamescrowley 1y agoyou also appear to get efficiency gains as vertical panels don’t get as hot - https://www.pv-magazine.com/2023/11/10/researchers-shed-light-on-mysterious-higher-energy-yields-in-vertical-pv-systems/ https://www.pv-magazine.com/2023/11/10/researchers-shed-ligh...
- gorbypark 1y agoI’ve seen some YouTube videos of people making solar fences with bi-facial panels. If I recall correctly on the one I was watching, they were going for morning and evening production and faced them east/west. One side would get the morning light then the other the evening light.
- danielheath 1y agoIt’s mentioned in the article that sunlight from near the horizon passes through a lot more atmosphere, which attenuates the light so much that you might as well not bother with the panels.
- mapt 1y agoThat depends on your latitude, how dear land is, and how close to breakeven your application is. For a lot of applications, panels are so goddamn cheap now and breakeven happens so fast that "Just buy twice as many panels" is the best solution to any problem that doesn't involve land area. Winter production in a snowy/leafy climate at a latitude tilt, though, is the exception to the rule; Production is so impaired without regular maintenance that twice as many panels is not very helpful. But set those panels vertical, at a range of orientations, and snow/leaves stop being an issue, you get sizable exposure with the sun low on the horizon, the maintenance requirement goes away, and you get an appreciable amount of power earlier in the morning and later in the afternoon, you just don't get quite as much at noon.
- jillesvangurp 1y agoThe article seems to be mostly about grid scale solar. Of course an increasing amount is private or domestic solar installed on e.g. building roofs or wherever there is space. When cost drops low enough, any surface with any exposure to sunlight is in scope for installing solar on if it can yield more energy than the cost of installing solar on it. It stops being about what is the most efficient and starts being about if the surface is good enough to provide a decent return on investment. Maximizing that ROI is complex but it boils down to getting more value out of the installation than goes in. Solar doesn't even have to be in panel form. Some office buildings now have windows that double for solar generation. A thin transparent coating does the job. There are roof tiles that double as solar panels. Aptera makes electric cars with integrated solar panels. These are curved glass panels that are manufactured to fit the profile of the roof and hood. It's also possible to print organic solar cells directly on plastic rolls. No glass involved. Or panels. Those are less efficient but you can integrate them on all sorts of surfaces. A lot of that stuff is still emerging technology. But especially organic solar printed on plastic rolls could end up being very cheap to produce. And very light.
- mapt 1y agoGrid scale solar benefits from bifacial cells in a vertical orientation just as much as home scale solar - it dramatically improves winter production and extends the production of the spring/fall day a few hours earlier and a few hours later.
- mg794613 1y agoNot only does it increase overall production, currently one of our biggest challenanges is transport and distribution, and having some of that power in the of-hours instead has more benefits than power total alone.
- Veserv 1y agoDomestic solar is a rapidly decreasing fraction of total solar deployments [1]. Not because it is not growing exponentially, but because grid-scale is much more exponential with no signs of that changing. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42591918 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42591918
- adammarples 1y agoNorth South is exactly opposite of what you need, the sun is never north
- dylan604 1y agowhat if you're in the southern hemisphere?
- adammarples 1y agoGenuinely didn't even consider this XD
- Someone 1y agoThen, you’re a statistical outlier that can be ignored in the analysis :-) (Only about 12% of all humans live in the southern hemisphere)
- Dylan16807 1y agoThen North South is still the opposite of what you need.
- kgermino 1y agoI’m pretty sure they mean that the width of the panel is north-south so faces are due east or west
- gpm 1y agoI'm pretty sure by north-south they are talking about the direction the panel lies in, i.e. the faces point east/west. But even under your interpretation, you aren't always right. If you're far-ish north of the equator you want south facing panels (and the reverse) and if the cells are cheap enough it makes sense for those panels to be bifacial, with one side permanently facing away from the sun, to get a bit of extra energy from ambient light. Especially in winter when there is less sun (so energy is at a premium), and highly reflective snow resulting in a lot of ambient light.
- rjsw 1y agoBalcony Solar is a thing, most of the panels will be vertical in that use case.
- Calwestjobs 1y ago(not sarcasm) Yes ! Triple price of PV panels to buy "ceramic glass print" PV panel with eye pleasing pattern / stealthy photo on it and you can have facade or fence made from PV panels, there is drop in generated power from 10-50 % depended on pattern, color used. Price per panel not price per install ! ! ! And subtract need to buy materials used for that purpose before.
- turtlebits 1y agoYep, but you're severely limited in terrain types. Unless you need the "fence" cover, I can't see it being worth it due the efficiency loss.