In February 2016 the community of Gnesau (Carinthia / Austria) ordered a Solar Glare Assessment for a roof-top photovoltaic power plant in construction. During the construction of the plant it turned out, that neighbors were suffering under the reflections of the sun on the PV panels so massively, that the quality of life on their terraces, balconies and even in the inner living quarters was significantly reduced by the glaring hazard. The building authority issued a freeze to the construction and ordered the solar glare assessment for the verification of the facts (during the complete course of the year).

 

The assessment showed that glare-durations of up to 5 hours and more than 350 days per year were possible due to the size and proximity of the PV plant. The glare calculation was executed for 5 different PV areas on different roofs and for multiple points of interest at adjacent houses. An additional benefit of the glaring survey for the EPC contractor was the possibility to reduce the glaring hazard of the plant cost-efficiently. Depending on the position of each subsystem of the plant the construction of fences or reconstruction were executed, whose effectiveness had been proven in the glaring survey.