Planning for Wind Resilience: Purchasing Durable, 30-Year Solar PV Systems

Wind is the single biggest force placed on solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. While industry structural engineers work to establish minimum design and safety standards, agencies need to understand how to achieve durable systems that can reliably operate for 30 or even 50 years. Wind smart PV systems not only prevent unnecessary loss during windstorms, but also cost less to maintain, improve safety, and provide a resilient source of power and cost savings to agencies. Wind smart PV systems deliver resilience and support agency missions at a lower levelized cost of energy.

Learning Objective

Upon completion of this training, attendees will be able to:

• Learn how to procure a wind smart PV system that is resilient, high performing, and safe to host on site.
• Understand industry-recommended good practices to obtain wind smart solar PV systems.
• Understand the frequency and severity of wind events for a specific site.
• Explore how wind acts upon solar PV systems and the resulting impacts.
• Understand the different wind dynamics between ground, roof, and parking canopies.
• Understand when a wind event is severe enough to be considered a force majeure where resulting damage should be considered a normal outcome.