Researchers from Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar have assessed the techno-economic performance of five pole-mounted photovoltaic configurations intended for off-grid equipment in hot, arid environments where maintenance access may be limited. The systems are designed for applications including streetlights, cameras, sensors and telecommunications devices.
The team monitored the configurations at the Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute’s outdoor test facility in Doha from August 2025 to August 2026. The test group included U-IBC and bifacial modules installed either at a 22-degree tilt or vertically, along with an octagonal vertical photovoltaic tube. Electrical output and environmental conditions were recorded at one-minute intervals, with 311 days of data retained after screening.
The researchers combined field measurements with analytical models to examine energy production, soiling, shading and wind-related structural requirements. They also sized the systems to supply a daily load of 1 kWh under low-irradiance conditions, evaluated installation footprints and estimated battery storage needs using three reference days.
The study ranked the configurations according to six criteria: installed capacity, footprint, storage, maintenance, shading resilience and structural compactness. Additional analyses considered how the results changed with different criterion weightings, temperatures and costs.
According to corresponding author Khaled Aʼamar, the geometry of each design strongly influences the effect of dust. When modules are not cleaned, tilted panels require 16.04% more photovoltaic capacity to offset soiling losses, while the vertical photovoltaic tube requires an additional 0.70%.
Shading was identified as an even more significant constraint in the Doha conditions. The researchers’ model indicates that the planar configurations stop producing when shading exceeds 67%, whereas the tube configuration continues operating.
The results did not identify a universal best option. Tilted bifacial modules require the least installed capacity when a site has no major constraints. However, where maintenance access, shading, available space or structural limitations are important, the vertical tube has the lowest combined penalty, despite requiring a baseline capacity approximately 2.7 times higher.
The researchers developed indices to quantify the additional design requirements associated with these constraints and proposed a six-criterion framework for selecting configurations according to site conditions. The findings are reported in the study “Techno-Economic Analysis of Off-Grid Pole-Mounted Photovoltaic Configurations for Accessible and Inaccessible Sites in Arid Climates,” published in Solar Energy.
Sources: pv magazine.