In Norway, the largest was built on the roof of the Ullevaal Stadion football stadium in the world solar power plant with vertical panels. This made it possible to place the working surfaces of the panels next to each other so that the light works from both sides of the pairs, increasing the output power by 20–30%. The vertical arrangement has a number of other advantages, which the Norwegians intend to take advantage of in other such projects.
The local company Over Easy Solar installed 1,242 solar panels with a power of 200 W on an area of 2,500 m2. The declared field power reaches 248 kW. In one year, the plant will be able to generate up to 219 MWh of electricity. The panels are oriented from north to south with 20° deviation to the east from the south side. This will allow them to work more efficiently in the winter.
Also, reflection from the snow will play an important role in increasing the power in winter, which is also an advantage of the vertical arrangement of the panels. This factor is particularly important if we take into account the unfavorable location of the power plant: it is located in Oslo, a city located at a latitude with poor sunlight.
The biggest challenge for the designer and manufacturer of a set of vertically oriented panels is the increased weight of the fastening system to keep the panels upright. The problem was solved by reducing the total mass of the array to 11 kg/m2, and this is a huge space achievement that will allow the creation of vertical solar farms on the roofs of many buildings.
Other advantages of the vertical orientation of the solar panels include the space freed up for roof inspections and the ease of maintenance of the array. Along with increased efficiency due to double-sided lighting, which creates two peaks of production instead of one, the method of vertical placement of solar panels promises to become very popular, so the company intends to break the established record with a new achievement soon.
