A consortium consisting of German installation system supplier K2 Systems and Swiss EPC contractor Solarmotion has deployed a vertical photovoltaic system on a detour road in the city of Toifen in the canton of Apenzell, Switzerland.

The array is installed on a retaining wall with a slope of 75 degrees and an installed capacity of 325kW. This array uses 756 dual glass all black solar modules provided by an undisclosed supplier.

K2 Systems states that the installation solution for this device uses "K2 BasicRail" mounting rails and HUS screw anchors. Hilti, located in Liechtenstein, provided mechanical pins for the project.

In the system configuration, adhesive technology is used to fix the components of the photovoltaic system and the K2 building protection pad as the substrate onto the masonry. In order not to affect the statics of the retaining wall, the company must consider that the anchoring depth must not exceed 90mm.

The engineering office of the Swiss Road Supervision Agency inspected all static calculation results during the planning phase.

The company has completed this project within two months. Due to its proximity to asphalt, the K2 installation system still needs to meet special corrosion requirements, and its components are covered with anodized aluminum oxide for protection. The components of the fastening system are made of aluminum alloy and A2 stainless steel materials.

The photovoltaic system is scheduled to be officially put into use in December. It is expected that the vertical array will achieve good output, especially in winter. Overall, it is expected that the annual solar power generation will be around 230000 kWh.