New Guideline for Solar Glare Assessment in Austria
November 1st, 2016 - OVE (the Austrian electrical engineering association) has published a new guideline titled Solar Glare from Photovoltaic Installations on its homepage. The new regulation OVE R11-3 is available for download since the beginning of November 2016 via this Link.
The guideline helps to assess immissions of light from PV-plants and defines clear limits for which kind of glint and glare is substantial in a solar glare assessment. Next to the required protection of neighbours it deals with the glaring hazard on road-, train- and air-traffic in order to avoid or reduce imminent dangers and substantial nuisances by immissions of light from PV-panels. The guideline can be applied in advance for planned PV-plants as well as in case of neighbours appeal against existing installations.
With the help of this guideline now there is clarity about what lawmakers see as substantial nuisance by reflections of light. In the past there had been doubt about the limits for illumination and duration of immission and generally about the methods for measuring and calculating glaring, due to missing specifications.
The essential characteristics of the regulation, which descends from Germany's Notes about Measuring, Assessment and Reduction of Immissions of Light (Hinweise zur Messung, Beurteilung und Minderung von Lichtimmissionen) are:
- The sun is modelled as a point spot light
- PV-panels are regarded as flat mirrors
- Weather conditions are neglected
- Immissions are to be calculated for single points
Next to the calculation of date, time and duration of glint and glare special attention is given to the relevant angles of light rays.
Solar glare assessments from Zehndorfer Engineering are executed exactly according the R11-3. Read more about the details of Solar Glare Calculation