Is A Vertically Mounted Bifacial Solar Panel More Efficient?

Testing out the Texas made Sirius Pv panels with the idea that a vertically mounted bifacial panel is more efficient than a standard sloped panel, with some interesting results.

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[davidcoffey]

Interesting. Please try again on a sunny day.

[MatthewYBarbo]

Really enjoy these comparisons and would love to see what it looks like on a day that's more clear. Good stuff!

[jackcoats]

We have 20 verticals and 10 sloped at 45deg pointed roughly to the south south east.. The back of the verticals get morning, and front face our home. All on microinverters. Due to our lot we think both are great. None are oriented 'correctly' for
our area. The front of the verticals point about 30degrees south of west.

Overall of those panels, about 60pct comes from the verticals and 40pct from the southish facing slanted panells.

We are near Nashville TN.

All of those are Boviet 370 bifacials. We recently added 24 REC 370 single sided. 3 are slanted at 45deg faced to the west roughly 30degrees south of west. and 21 are the REC faced UP (yes, horizontal mount, all laid pretty flat on the ground. 20 of those are on the east side of the fence of panels and one on the west. Yes, small yard and hard to orient more than what we have. None on the roof, and we have a small yard. With all 54 panels we have generated a max of 9.2 kw at a time, and 74KWh in a day is our full day maximum. All of it comes through our 15 DS3-S microinverters from APsystems.

[fullyelectric]

@SHVAC dude thats good results for both setup under crappy weather, if you can do the test again do not change anything but do the test when you know its going to be a sunny day, i am actually impressed with the results of the vertical panels, i may build a solar fence, zero yard space needed for the win!

[menchelke]

I live in AZ, and have open land, where there would be zero obstruction for horizontal and vertical. I just don't have 2 blue yetis to test any panels with. I have panels. But my solar project will be a long time, as I work slowly. Still useful information, even if not exactly pertinent to my scenario.

[paulhardie]

Yep test again, but run the panels cables down the sides and not on back of panel to create shading issues . I think this is a great test as it shows that two of those panels vertically per bluetti will completely fill them every day after heavy overnight usage . I’d say it’s a great result for putting panels around the out sides of your property as a way to gain more power from dead spaces, one side early morning sunshine the other collecting afternoon sunshine 57% charge is nothing to sneeze at after all 👍

[catv]

You can add mirrors to vertical panel at least 20° degrees facing the panel. To support in 12nn

[bobmonztr]

Face the vertical panel south, east west is for solar farms for peak power early and late in the day. Face it south and put down some reflectix front and behind the panel, or white rock to simulate snow which is the time we need max power, the vertical will blow the sloped one away. My 465w in summer is only 300w, add snow and sun 570w. Vertical is not pointing at the sun so what did you expect from vertical in direct sun? Did you notice when the clouds came the vertical was producing while the sloped was 0. Try both panels in full overcast, face any direction, vertical should win. 40 snowfalls I never had snow on my panels. Haven't washed them since September.

[HartFarmsGenetics]

Wasabout to sey up my begginer solar array next week and had planned on verticle with 8 550 watt bifacials. Now I'm rethinking things??? I live in Canada in a very cold winter zone. Thanks for sharing and peace.

[ManKzin]

Great side by comparison. Now try it on a Sunny and with reflective insulation (used for windows insulation) set at an angle on the ground, so that at noon it reflects back to the solar panels). This should greatly increase its energy production.

[ericcamolinos]

Cool, fun teat man! Would love to see results on a mostly sunny day. And try to get the wires out of the way so theyre not partially shading the back side

[rodneyhunt]

Working on the same test now lol. Nice!

[Ebbrush]

sun beating strait down is 22 miles to space, where as sideways will be hundreds or even thousands of miles of atmosphere have 15 panels on the side of my 2 story and late afternoon is very in-efficient roof panels kick their ass

[betweenfiveandseven]

Walk around that privacy fence in your yard. Count the loose nails in the East/West facing boards. Now count the loose nails in the North/South facing boards. If bifacial panels vertical East/West is the more efficient installation orientation compared to traditional Southern facing with appropriate tilt, racking solutions are going to have to be a whole lot more robust and aluminum will never, ever be a racking construction material option. The nice thing about vertical is that snow loads are no longer any sort of concern. The not-so-nice thing is that increased wind loads and and constantly changing pressures are concerns currently completely unaddressed by any racking method.

[MySwatteam]

What brackets are holding the vertical panel.. I'm looking at how to build a vehicle bigacial fence ...

[UserFormelyKnownAs_hjkh]

This would be really interesting to see with both panels on a tracking base

[steinmar]

I also thought of this test
I want to make one vertical east/west One vertical south/north and one conventional south facing 10°

[fabulousoffroaddesigns]

I would like to see the vertical panel sitting in the centre of a white floor say 16' x 8'. Maybe a white fence perpendicular on its north side.

I would also like to see identical battery systems. These two batteries are different sizes, they run different chemistries, and have different charge times.

[shubinternet]

I’d be curious to see what happens if the vertical panel is facing south (like the sloped panel)?

[thatAKredneck]

Of course when you are closer to the equator the vertical panel will do lower production when the sun is directly overhead, so location is calculated in when determining proper angle if you are designing a system to hit it's peak at noon, and even then only if your primary concerns is the minimum solar panels to hit that peak.