A Study of the Current Disturbance Caused by Wind Induced Vibrations of Photovoltaic Modules

Abstract

Mechanical  vibrations  of  a  solar  module  mount-ing  rack  cause  oscillations  in  the  orientation  of  the  module  towards  the  sun.  The  resulting  intensity  oscillations  of    the  incident  light  originate  an  a.c.  current  at  the  module’s    termi-nals. We have investigated this effect in the laboratory by means of a vibration  table  and  outdoors  where  wind  forces  induce  vibra-tions  to  the  mounting  rack.  Although  the  collected  results  are  specific  and  restricted  to  our  experimental  set  up  and  environ-mental  situation  we  deduce  that  vibration induced current tran-sients  and  oscillations  of  a  solar  module’s  output  most  often  will  be  the  dominant  origin  of  distortion  in  the  low  frequency  regime.