Evaluation of Snow Removal Methods for Rooftop Photovoltaics
2022 (English)Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
Avoiding snow on photovoltaic (PV) installations is motivated for two reasons: to decrease power losses from shading, or to decrease mechanical loads to avoid damage to the PV-installation and the underlying construction. We experimentally investigated the effectiveness and suitability of four different snow removal methods at our facility in the north of Sweden (Piteå, 65°N), throughout three winters. The layout of a PV installation and the underlying roof, together with meteorological conditions and snow characteristics, impact which methods are best suited for snow removal. A simple roof rake with a rectangular toolhead works well when the snowpack is compact and not too thick, whereas a roof rake with a slide works better when the snow is dry and packed. Neither the investigated passive hydrophobic surface coatings, nor the active forward bias electrical heating methods induced shedding of the accumulated snowpack in our experiments without additional intervention. At our test facility in Piteå, the roof rake with a slide was the most effective and user-friendly snow removal. Despite maximum snow loads of approximately 1 kPa, far below the modules’ rating, cell damage was observed for both snow removal groups (except for the slide roof rake group) and the control group.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2022. p. 1122-1128
Keywords [en]
Evaluation, Rooftop, Electroluminescence, Durability, Snow
National Category
Civil Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-61619DOI: 10.4229/WCPEC-82022-4DO.4.6ISBN: 3-936338-86-8 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-61619DiVA, id: diva2:1721225
Conference
8th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion
2022-12-212022-12-212023-06-08Bibliographically approved