World record in vertical solar panels on rooftops

August 03, 2024

The world’s largest rooftop solar system with vertical panels has been installed at the Ullevaal Stadion in Norway. The system at the national football stadium has a peak output of 248 kilowatts (kW), but unlike other solar installations, which take months, it was completed in a matter of days.   
 
The demand for cleaner energy has prompted the world to look for innovative ways to install renewable sources of energy. Interesting Engineering has previously reported on solar panels installed in the Swiss Alps and companies using a vertical solar panel approach to extract maximum energy output from installations. 

Oslo, Norway-headquartered Over Easy Solar seems to have found the right combination of innovation regarding the site of installation and the size of vertical solar panels to deploy rooftop solar quickly. 

Panels with two peak production
 
Conventional solar panel installations require large sites for high power output. Still, horizontal panels require additional infrastructure, such as heavy and intrusive ballasts and fasteners. This increases the overall weight of the installation, which can severely limit the number of sites suitable for solar deployment.  
 
A vertical solar panel, on the other hand, is relatively easier to install. By shrinking the panel’s size, Over Easy Solar has ensured that the overall installation weight is reduced to just 11 kg per square meter, making it convenient to install solar on a wide range of rooftop sites.  
 
The vertical arrangement allows for bi-facial or two-sided solar panel installation, which doubles the panel’s production cycle. With two production peaks, the vertical panels can generate more energy during the day than horizontally arranged panels. 

Vertical solar panels generate 20-30 percent higher specific yield by its own estimates.  

World’s largest vertical panel installation
 
Over Easy Solar’s innovative approach, we have helped it achieve the world’s largest vertical panel installation on the existing roof of a football stadium.  
 
The installation consists of 1,242 units of 200 Wp each spread over an area of 26,900 square feet (2,500 square meters). Put together, these units will generate 219,000 kWh of energy every year.  
 
The company has installed its panels in the south-north direction with the orientation skewed to 20 degrees east of the south. According to the company, this will enable better performance during winter, when sunlight is limited. Still, the panels can aim for higher production due to higher snow albedo.    
 
Albedo is the ratio of light or radiation reflected by a surface to the light incident on it. Surfaces like snow or clouds have high albedo since they reflect most of the incident’s visible light.  
 
Installing these vertical panels also has another benefit: the rooftop remains accessible for inspection and repairs at all times. The entire solar panel array was installed in a matter of days. Certain parts of the panel can be removed to tend to roof repairs and then connected back to the array.  
 
Even though Over Easy Solar has set a record by installing such a large array of panels, the company is confident that it will last only a short time and that bigger installations will be completed soon.