Spanish solar PV project engineering company Iasol has come up with an interesting solution to majorly shield solar power plants from gusts of wind, building what it calls windbreak walls. The first such walls have been deployed for 12.5 MW El Marques Solar PV plant in Zaragoza region of Spain.
It has used an 'innovative technical solution' using a high density polyethylene mesh with high mechanical resistance to reduce risks associated with strong gusts of wind to a minimum. It creates a screen effect on the park from where winds from the northeast can cause structural damage. In most problematic areas, the height of the screen reaches up to 4 meters.
Single axis tracker PV installations with 2 panels placed vertically are most common currently, Iasol explained, but such projects are negatively impacted by strong winds. Windbreak walls do not really reduce generation efficiency of the PV plant and do not have a significant impact on the installation cost of the project either, it added. These kind of barriers are usually used in agriculture, the company shared.
Iasol says it is happy with the results of this experiment and plans to replicate the study in the next 2 PV parks it is going to build this year.