mount panels on top of a 40 ft container

[geekwithoutacause]

Not being an engineer, a lot of the above is Greek to me. I'm sure some of what you mention has some validity but my practical mind tells me that the strong northerly winds and the uplift created on this 9' x 23' air scoop are considerably mitigated by adding this feature. I added it for a couple reasons, one being to lessen uplift but also so I, and others don't have to look at the underside of the array. I love the look of a nice big array of solar panels but not from that angle, which from the front of the garage is all you could see.

The fence, as I call it is dog eared cedar with close to 1" spacing now that the Baja air has dried it out. There is plenty of airflow though and around it and the array runs considerably cooler than an array mounted mere inches above a tile or asphalt roof.

jeep (2).jpg There are 3 additional modules added to this array before the dog eared fence was added. So as I was saying, aesthetically speaking, it needed to be done.

Yes, it should help but your structure doesn't use the supports of the array. That makes a difference already. The other picture has the vertical wall using the same supports as the array. That does direct the forces more sideways versus up in the air but I am not sure how much difference it would make.

[bcroe]

I figure, if the panels fail before the support, you are done. Many use those silly clamps
that can slip out of place if things move a bit. Others use 4 bolts to the flimsy panel frame,
but I suppose one could use 12 evenly spaced bolts to raise the stakes.

My Reason to Ground Mount #17 is you can be less concerned about a possible failure.
Bruce Roe

[littleharbor]

Yes, it should help but your structure doesn't use the supports of the array. That makes a difference already. The other picture has the vertical wall using the same supports as the array. That does direct the forces more sideways versus up in the air but I am not sure how much difference it would make.

If it ever fails I will let all here know. I might add, last October, it survived a hurricane crossing over the peninsula and directly over the area. We had about 4 hours of pretty intense wind and rain. See the image of the track of Hurricane Rosa.


Track of hurricane Rosa..png