Electrical Engineering - Photovoltaics

Solar Glare Assessment of The Shard

London, UK - Zehndorfer Engineering has finished a Glint and Glare Study of the glass facades of The Shard. The purpose of the study was the investigation of the sun reflections on the many glass facades of the high-rise building, which has reportedly caused dazzling among train drivers on the south-eastern train tracks leading to the London Bridge Terminal. Not far from the place of investigation, in 20 Fenchurch street, another building had been destroying a car when its facade reflected sun rays. While the effect of the reflections in this case are not that harmful, they still can be a nuisance for traffic and neighbours. In order to develop a full understanding of the buildings glare impact a glare simulation was done for several points of interest such as the train tracks, neighbouring roads and an adjacent building.

Safety of Photovoltaic Installations in case of Fire

On the occasion of a major fire in a maritime yard in Carinthia, Austria Mr. Jakob Zehndorfer, Expert Witness for Photovoltaics was interviewed by Austrian TV-Channel ORF, regarding the safety of Photovoltaic Installations in case of Fire. The roof of the building had been equipped with a commercial photovoltaic plant, which in case of fire can be uneasy for firemen. However, with the right approach, firefighting with a photovoltaic installation is no more dangerous that without.

Glint and Glare of a Glass Facade next to the Highway?

Glass is a versatile building material. It has good isolation properties and at the same time provides daylight to offices and living space, which makes us feel pleasant. Glass facades allow an architectural appealing design of buildings on the outer surface of the building as well as inside, where panoramic views optically enlarge rooms and provide a enjoyably varied view for people inside. New building materials and detailed static calculations enable a modern open-space interior style, where walls as load bearing elements can be reduced which allows the application of large glass surfaces especially in the exterior shell of the building. Large glass facades, however, can become a disturbing element for the immediate environment when they reflect dazzling sunrays.

Glint and Glare Assessment at the airports of Munich and Paderborn

The Airport Munich "Franz Josef Straus" (MUC) is the largest airport of Bavarian capital Munich. With its 44.6 million passengers, it ranks among the largest airports of Europe. The approximately 100 carriers, flying into Munich, connect it with almost 300 destinations in the whole world. More than 500 airplanes take off from one of its two parallel 4,000 m runways. On the roof of the central building of Terminal 2 there is already a photovoltaic installation with an approximate size of 400 kWp, which helps to reduce the CO2 emissions of the commercial buildings. However, the installation, which has been in smooth operation since 2013, has not been part of this glint and glare assessment.

PV-park in the approach sector

The planned Photovoltaic ground mount installation is situated exactly in line with the runway, approximately 5 km west of the touch-down zone. Even though the PV-park with its 10 MWp is relatively big, it can merely be seen as a thin line on the horizon due to its large distance from the tower. However, the direction of the Solar-park is the same as the runway, which means that it is an important view for air traffic controllers. Therefore, potential glint and glare of sunlight, reflected from the surface of the PV panels had to be calculated and investigated, Due to the situation and the direction of the PV panels, reflections towards the air traffic control tower were found to be principally impossible.

Solar Glare Analysis at Vienna Airport helps avoid Glaring Hazard for the Tower

Vienna, Austria - The view from the tower in the direction of the runways is essential for air traffic controllers. Only when visibility to the free runway is sufficient, the times for airplane starts and landings can be optimized. Even for the evaluation of rolling traffic a clear view is important and cannot be replaced by radar screens completely. This is why an air traffic control tower is equipped with several features to improve vision for air traffic controllers. Tinted and slanted glass helps to improve contrast at different weather conditions. Blinds (not unlike the ones in a car) and shutters allow to avoid glaring and improve light conditions. However, when reflections are coming from a direction where another object should be recognized, a dazzling of the eye cannot be avoided. This can lead to after-images on the retina, which impede following visual tasks. Dazzling of longer duration can also lead to headaches and in the extreme case to retinal burn.

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