Performance of light-weighted PV arrays installed on building walls in a snowy country in Japan

The performance of two kinds of PV array installed on a conventional roof and building walls in a snowy country has been evaluated by meteorological data and hourly generated energy. This paper focuses on energy generation on a north wall in the snowy winter season. Simulation was also carried out using a PV energy simulation program, PVFORM and meteorological PV data, METPV. As a result, there is almost no difference between generated energies with and without snow for the PV arrays installed on the conventional roof, while generated energies with snow is three times higher than that without snow for the PV arrays installed on the north wall.