Vertical Bi-Facial Solar Panels, Solar Fencing (not portray)

cs1234 said:

I was originally thinking of a bouncy horse when I thought of it.. perhaps just weighted down with cinder blocks or a ballast tub full of rocks instead of actually in the ground. If it could be kept pretty small diameter, since it sways with the wind instead of outright fighting it, maybe a regular handheld auger and a bag of concrete or two could do it per panel.. or some of those anchor screws.

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instead of water tank you could just have flat plate where you can stack cinder blocks on both sides.
concrete blocks are 8x16x4 and about 33lbs heavy

A solar Panel is 40 wide, if you have a grid 40/8 inch you could have 5 bricks on each side - so a total 10 concrete bricks for one panel. Cost about $2 each Roughly 330lbs total.

So the ballast would be about $20 bucks, If that's not enough heavy you can stack another layer. $40


Two rails on both sides, $30-50
two springs ??
And few L-metal pieces to where the blocks sit in. Plus welding....

Yeah we are getting in price territory where it doesn't make sense anymore. You can't spend more then $50-100 for installing one panel.
Would be fun, but not economical.

Just ramming metal sing posts in the ground - You can do a lot faster and is something road sign contractors and fence builders do all day

Doesn't seem like it should really cost that much, but it's a pretty niche product, big spring attached to a base or screw for anchoring attached to a bracket with arms that you could clamp or slide a solar panel into. For easy distribution, the arms that go up for the solar panel to brace into/against would need to be sourced locally, ideally, or at least be short enough to ship cheaply with it.

Oh well, we will just keep dreaming and being squashed by reality.

Something like this, but obviously much, much cheaper, for the base.

Imagine all that flopping in the wind PV cable.. lol.

Something like this could be really good for people who rent or simply have terrible roof options (or not enough viable roof).

There's actually been a few successful "real world" tests mixing similar ideas with farming of plants that prefer some shade, iirc.
As someone whos renting currently, I certain am open to things that are non destructive or minimally invasive. It also snows here so it seems like a good match lol.

Actually, this is F$%king brilliant idea! I live in a separate country of NYC and have no chance when factoring in roof space due to Firedept egress, and my Victorian anti-solar steep pitch design. I'd be willing to take this one step further and make this quickly removable. Especially during rioters, one block away from me (yup must factor this in too), and high winds. I definitely have plenty of room and sunlight with a fence facing south. Hell, I may even put a barbed-wired top with a rapid-fire turret on my solar panels just in case. Yeah I'm joking Definitely the best idea for solar minus the turrets ?

I have been seriously thinking of building one. I have the perfect place and those bifacial panels can be had cheap.

I like the idea of more solar facing west in the evening during the AC months and more facing the east in the winter for morning heat with the heat pumps.

My other idea was to do an East/West facing A frame mini barn/equipment cover.

sunsurfer said:

I have been seriously thinking of building one. I have the perfect place and those bifacial panels can be had cheap.

I like the idea of more solar facing west in the evening during the AC months and more facing the east in the winter for morning heat with the heat pumps.

My other idea was to do an East/West facing A frame mini barn/equipment cover.

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A frame is even better! The Load would be stable.

mikeinnyc said:

A frame is even better! The Load would be stable.

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Buy a pallet of $50 used panels from Santan and it might be cheaper then a wood/steel roof.

I have 26 panels of AC-310MH/120SB310 Wp and iq7s. I will need ac coupling or scrap the Iq7s. I'm ready for the A-frame. I'll pull some steel and wood strips off my neighbor's house. He'll just think it's a regular day in NYC

I think this would be great... especially here in Texas with all the hail we get.

MikeN said:

I think this would be great... especially here in Texas with all the hail we get.

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there was just a study released last week. Seems like that vertical solar panels have even more yield then initially thought.

Especially in hot climates (aka Texas)

My "fence".



Backside.



Link to my thread in my sig.

more Data on East-West Array

sunsurfer said:

I have been seriously thinking of building one. I have the perfect place and those bifacial panels can be had cheap.

I like the idea of more solar facing west in the evening during the AC months and more facing the east in the winter for morning heat with the heat pumps.

My other idea was to do an East/West facing A frame mini barn/equipment cover.

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East/west splits are common in Australia (as are N/E and N/W splits) and certainly aren't new- where I lived before buying my current place (to be my retirement home lol) we had a east west split put in in 2016...
3kw facing east, 3kw facing west (and an identical 'conventional' system facing north to compare it to)
The end result was although we had a lower 'midday peak', the total daily generated output was functionally identical (about 32kwh a day)- there were minor differences day to day, sometimes we 'won' sometimes the neighbours did

One unexpected result was in overcast/rainy weather- both systems lost output, but the surprise was the east/west split consistently made more power per day in poor weather than the 'ideal' north facing system did- by several kwh a day
(east array and the north facing solar HWS thermal panel on the left pic, overhead from google earth on the right)


Roof orientation really isn't that big a deal- my new place when it is finished will have 6kw north, 6kw east and 6kw west- even my current tiny 'temporary' arrays to power the shed are 750w north and 750w west (only 3 of the 4 north facers recharge the battery bank, the fourth is just idling along powering a '24v' UV sterilising bulb and 'water stirrer' in the tank behind it for the drinking water)


Many still seem fixated on the 'has to be ideal orientation or it simply won't work' idea- which is nonsense...
(my current west facers allow near full generation right until literally sunset, long after the the north facing array has practically shut down for the day)

The big problem I'm finding is in how to mount vertical panels. @shadowmaker used old phone poles and has the best design I've seen for verticals bifacials, but it doesn't appear one can easily purchase a system for the DIY-er that wants to try this, especially without a huge investment in equipment rental (setting phone poles won't be cheap). I hope people that try this out in a field will share their methods, especially for systems smaller than @shadowmaker 's.

eXodus said:

more Data on East-West Array

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I have some bifacials, and I was thinking about the vertical mounts. I don’t get any snow, so after watching this video, I may have to rethink and go back to something like the Sinclair Design mounting system.

Danke said:

I have some bifacials, and I was thinking about the vertical mounts. I don’t get any snow, so after watching this video, I may have to rethink and go back to something like the Sinclair Design mounting system.

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Even I wouldn't use vertical bifacials if there's no snow. With snow, every time where it is possible.

Also that video has few things that could be done better when installing those vertical panels.

Madcodger said:

The big problem I'm finding is in how to mount vertical panels. @shadowmaker used old phone poles and has the best design I've seen for verticals bifacials, but it doesn't appear one can easily purchase a system for the DIY-er that wants to try this, especially without a huge investment in equipment rental (setting phone poles won't be cheap). I hope people that try this out in a field will share their methods, especially for systems smaller than @shadowmaker 's.

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Remember that my huge panels are glued. Keep that in mind and you can use almost everything for mounting.

Danke said:

I have some bifacials, and I was thinking about the vertical mounts. I don’t get any snow, so after watching this video, I may have to rethink and go back to something like the Sinclair Design mounting system.

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so far he has only posted winter data.

When you look at the German studies I posted earlier -the main advantage is actually in the summer - the panels are not getting as hot - and producing more throughout the day. It is a very interesting evolving topic.

I see a bunch of advantages:

Potential easier to install- just drive posts in the ground and mount. Less labor.
Potential in marginal spaces (fences, compatible with agriculture etc.)

Even when they are less efficient per panel - there are use-cases where you can not have standard mounted panels.
Panels are going to be extremely cheap in the future. - so labor cost will the main factor.
A south facing - tilted array - has a ton more parts then a vertical system. More screws, bolts etc. For scaling - a vertical system could be deployed rapidly.

eXodus said:

so far he has only posted winter data.

When you look at the German studies I posted earlier -the main advantage is actually in the summer - the panels are not getting as hot - and producing more throughout the day. It is a very interesting evolving topic.

I see a bunch of advantages:

Potential easier to install- just drive posts in the ground and mount. Less labor.
Potential in marginal spaces (fences, compatible with agriculture etc.)

Even when they are less efficient per panel - there are use-cases where you can not have standard mounted panels.
Panels are going to be extremely cheap in the future. - so labor cost will the main factor.
A south facing - tilted array - has a ton more parts then a vertical system. More screws, bolts etc. For scaling - a vertical system could be deployed rapidly.

Click to expand...

I need to explore more on the options of how to mount it vertically on posts. Uni-strut would be cheap and easy, but then I guess it create a little shading on the backside.

Danke said:

I need to explore more on the options of how to mount it vertically on posts. Uni-strut would be cheap and easy, but then I guess it create a little shading on the backside.

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Run it up the side edges of the panels.