Evaluation of Front Eave Load Caused by Snow Accumulation on Photovoltaic Array

In snowy regions, photovoltaic (PV) systems often face heavy snow accumulation on the modules, which can lead to significant damage to both the modules and their mounting structures. The load on the front eave of the PV module (Pe) increases particularly when the snow on the modules connects with the snow on the ground. To investigate this front eave load during the snowy season, we measured the vertical loads on the four pods of a PV mounting structure using load cells installed at the base of each pod. From these vertical load measurements, Pe was estimated using a standard mechanical model. The centroid of the accumulated snow, which was determined through image processing of side-view images of the PV modules, served as the basis for this estimation. This centroid determination process employed an OpenCV/Python pipeline integrated with Jython (Python on ImageJ). Since obtaining side-view images of PV arrays is generally challenging, we developed an empirical method for estimating Pe that does not rely on such images. By applying baseline correction to the Pe trend with a fixed centroid, we were able to estimate Pe values comparable to those derived from the actual centroid. As a result, using this empirical approach, Pe during snowy conditions can be estimated based on the loads measured at the mounting structure's pods. This estimation method enables the design and construction of more robust PV systems to withstand snow loads.