Wind loads on photovoltaic panels on high-rise buildings

Do solar panels have wind loading characteristics on a tall building?

In this study, wind tunnel tests were conducted to systematically investigate the wind loading characteristics of solar panels on the square roof of a tall building. Both the isolated and 3 × 3 arrayed panels (nine zones on the roof) were studied by analyzing the mean and peak pressure/panel force coefficients.

Does roof height affect wind load of solar panels?

Stathopoulos et al (2014) studied wind effect on solar panels mounted on the roofs of 7 m and 16 m high buildings, and it was found that height of building has little effects on wind load of panels.

Does building height affect wind load on multi-row solar panels?

Kopp (2014) investigated wind load on Multi-row solar panels by adopting building with height ranging from 7.3 m to 21.9 m, influence of building height, aspect ratio and panels tilt angle on wind effect on panels are studied. Results show that wind loads do not obviously depend on tilt angle, for arrays with tilt angle of 10° and above.

Do isolated panels mount on tall buildings with different building heights affect wind load?

Conclusions This study investigated the wind loads on isolated panels mounted on the roofs of tall buildings with different building heights by wind tunnel testing. The effects of panel location, tilt angle (β = 15°, 30°, and 45°) and building height H (24, 48, 72, and 96 m) were systematically investigated at various wind directions.

How do solar panels affect wind load?

The panel forces on the trackers increased with pedestal height and inclination angle. The largest wind loads occurred at a tilt angle of 45° and attack angles of 0° and 180°. Compared with the isolated panels, solar panels in arrays have rather complicated wind loading characteristics due to the mutual interference effect.

Do roof-mounted PV arrays influence wind loads?

The wind loads of the PV array were influenced significantly by the PV panel tilt angle and the PV array setback from the roof leading edge. The wind flow mechanism related to the wind loads of the roof-mounted PV array was researched by Kopp et al. (2012) taking into consideration of two panel tilt angles.