Mounting bifacial panels on a 75 foot greenhouse.

[Brianofboise]

I have a greenhouse with east/west mounting planes. I have access to bifacial panels. I was thinking of mounting them on the west side to provide afternoon shade and possibly capture the early morning sun from the backside. I'm looking for any recommendation a on greenhouse installations.

 

[Bluedog225]

Welcome.

What would you like to do with the energy you get? Use it, store it, put it back into the utility distribution system, or all three?

 

[rhino]

Also would need to know what kind of structure that greenhouse is. Bifacials are considerably heavier then non-bifacial panels.

 

[Brianofboise]

Welcome.

What would you like to do with the energy you get? Use it, store it, put it back into the utility distribution system, or all three?

The greenhouse is not a permitted structure so I can't get permits to go back to the grid. I have fans for the greenhouse and would like to heat it in the winter.

 

[Brianofboise]

Also would need to know what kind of structure that greenhouse is. Bifacials are considerably heavier then non-bifacial panels.

It is not engineered for panels but I have it upgraded with the heavy snow load trusses. I guess that I would be more concerned with up forces because I have not put in concrete around the metal post.

 

[OffGridForGood]

Solar panels are about 1-1.5lbs per sqft, the racking - depending on what you do, can also be in that range.
If the GH is a dome/round shape, you may be exposed to considerable up-lift force in windy conditions. The uplift forces can be (again depends on local conditions and wind speeds, directions) significant.
Running fans on solar = totally doable.
Running Heating on solar - generally not so much, ( a lot of PV panels will give you some heating while it's sunny out)
I use a small set up in my own GH in spring time, the PV runs fans, grow lights and controls, but not heat energy.

 

[rhovac]

From my experience one big limiting factor of gardening in the cold season is the lack of sunlight. I m not sure what's the purpose of your greenhousebut productivity might lack.
that depends on your location heavily of course as well. Probably one approach would be to reduce the covered areas on the roof and dump inverters all together. Simply using the DC current with an 12/24 V transformer on the fly. That might also simplify the mounting design for those heavy Panels