Vertical Solar PV? Yes, Says Vancouver

Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

A snowy country like Norway is going to approach solar power in a different way from a place like the Bahamas. It’s not surprising to find out, then, that a company in Norway has developed a “vertical PV” system designed to help deal with very snowy conditions.

Now that company has found its way to Vancouver and is deploying the first such commercial installation in Canada.

The company is Over Easy Solar. The 19.5 kW installation has been installed in the BC Hydro utility district and is being monitored by the utility as it considers whether to roll out vertical PV solar systems around the region.

This installation, fittingly, is on Science World, a museum in the center of Vancouver. It is part of a much broader CAD 39 million ($27.4 million) retrofit of the building that adds insulation inside the building’s dome, air-source heat pumps, and electricity chillers. Across all of the new clean technologies, the museum is expected to reduce its energy use by 42%.

“Over Easy Solar’s vertical rooftop installation at the museum is a 19.5 kW system spread across three arrays that comprises 76 units of its latest vertical PV unit, the XM-3, paired with ST125 feet which are specifically optimized for gravel roofs and regions with heavy snowfall,” pv magazine shares. “Rob Baxter, co-founder of VREC Solar, the installation company that deployed the system, told pv magazine that Over Easy Solar’s vertical system is the perfect solution for weight-limited roofs.”

“‘In the past there was not a good solution for flat roofs that could not support ballast or penetrations,’ he said, while adding that the main reason for selecting a vertical system in this case was to avoid snow collecting on modules, helping to lead to better performance in winter months.”

This technology is not going to take over the rooftop solar market, but it could expand massively if it does have these benefits and can efficiently produce electricity in snowy areas, on flat roofs that can’t support ballast or penetrations, and in low-height sun conditions. I recall the initial rise of floating solar PV, solar canals, tracking solar panels, and parking lot solar canopies. Sometimes, an idea just makes sense.

“In April, Over Easy Solar announced it had entered the US market with a pilot installation in New York. The same month, the company shared that its vertical bifacial PV system had outperformed a conventionally-tilted monofacial rooftop PV system in the UK across all seasons during a year-long study,” Patrick Jowett of pv magazine adds.

Note that Steve Hanley previously covered Over Easy Solar and its technology deployment in Norway. I recommend reading that article for more on the topic. You can also visit the company’s website.