Effects of Wind Load on the Mechanics of a PV Power Plant

In contrast to the IEC 61215, in real life applications PV modules must withstand inhomogeneous load distributions, for example caused by wind. This work investigates the wind effects onto a PV power plant, containing ten rows with 40 modules each, using computational fluid dynamics simulations coupled to a mechanical finite element method model. The paper focuses on the impact of three factors on the mechanical stability of a PV power plant, namely: Module orientation, wind direction and module inclination angle. A crosswind scenario is found to be most critical. Furthermore, higher module inclination angles result in higher stresses. Finally, general thermomechanical rules are extracted allowing for a deeper understanding of the underlying effects, and therefore help to build more robust PV module installations in the future.