Date of Award
2026
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics (PhD)
Administrative Home Department
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Advisor 1
Ana R. Dyreson
Committee Member 1
Jeffrey Allen
Committee Member 2
Alden C. Adolph
Committee Member 3
Kyumin Lee
Abstract
Snow accumulation is a persistent and inadequately modeled driver of energy loss for photovoltaic systems deployed in cold and snow prone climates. Although prior studies have largely emphasized fixed tilt arrays, single axis trackers now dominate utility scale deployment, yet field validated understanding of snow accumulation, retention, shedding, and associated performance losses on tracker systems remain limited. This dissertation addresses this gap through a multiyear field investigation of snow behavior and energy impacts on bifacial single axis tracker photovoltaic systems operating in a lake effect, high snowfall climate in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. A key contribution is the development and deployment of a rotating sensor architecture mounted directly on the tracker plane, enabling synchronized measurements of module surface snow depth, front and rear plane of array irradiance, module temperature, local meteorology, tracker state, and electrical performance under dynamic tilt. Using these measurements, snow related energy losses were quantified by comparing measured output to a validated snow free baseline from System Advisor Model simulations driven by measured irradiance. Snow free months showed small error, supporting use of the simulation baseline for winter loss attribution. Across four nonconsecutive winter months, cumulative snow losses totaled 148.9 kWh, corresponding to 17.9 percent of energy production over four months where 49 days were affected by snow. Monthly losses reached 38 percent in a snowy month, and daily losses exceeded 80 percent during severe storm periods. Even under complete front side occlusion, the bifacial system maintained residual generation on the order of 10 to 20 percent of the snow free reference due to rear side irradiance. Controlled field experiments evaluated operational mitigation strategies including maximum tilt stow, wind aligned stow, horizontal stow, and cyclic multi rotation. Wind aligned steep stow reduced snow retention and increased generation, yielding approximately 63% to 80% higher storm period generation and peak instantaneous improvements exceeding 170 percent relative to a reference row, demonstrating that tracker control can materially influence winter performance. The wind aligned stow concept progressed beyond experimentation through patent filing, illustrating translation from research to implementation. Finally, the dissertation extends the technical findings to cold region deployment through a methodology developed under the Navigating the New Arctic project to estimate renewable energy potential on redeveloped lands at retired mine sites. Collectively, the measurements, analyses, and experiments presented here establish an empirical basis for single axis tracker specific snow loss modeling and future data driven approaches, and support more reliable energy yield estimation and operational decision making for photovoltaic deployment in snow affected and high latitude environments.
Recommended Citation
Chutani, Ayush, "SNOW INDUCED ENERGY LOSSES IN SINGLE AXIS TRACKER SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS AND MITIGATION STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE WINTER PERFORMANCE", Open Access Dissertation, Michigan Technological University, 2026.