ᐅ Is it practical to install a photovoltaic system on the west or east side of a building?

Hello,
we are wondering whether we should install a photovoltaic system on the roof in the near future. The empty conduits for it are already in place. However, we have a hipped roof. On the south side, there is just over 20m² (215 sq ft) available for the system. Would it make sense to also use the west (or east) side to increase the area, even if the sun doesn’t hit it at the optimal angle?

Short, yes! Some even include the north side, as long as the angle is shallow enough.

Use PVGIS, provide exact dimensions, orientations, and shading details of the four roof surfaces.

The general recommendation there is to fully cover everything (sometimes even the north side) and to omit the battery storage. However, with the steadily declining feed-in tariffs, profitability is currently becoming more marginal.

And for the small amount of money you get from just 20m² (215 square feet), I really wouldn’t want to deal with the tax complications—so if at all, go bigger.

I have also covered south, east, and west, each at 45 degrees. It all adds up; I would cover as much as possible. Unfortunately, north at 45 degrees doesn’t pay off for us, maybe sometime in the future.

Shade management and string lengths are factors with different orientations. I was advised to use SolarEdge for my roof. Maybe a conventional system will work for you, but those are specialized questions.

Where to get good help has already been mentioned.

Wow, thanks for the quick and positive responses! I didn’t even know there was a separate forum for this. So, it’s best to cover both East and West – great! Once things get more concrete, I’ll register on the forum.

So we would have about 60m² (650 sq ft) available. My husband prefers to work with a battery. Does anyone have a rough idea of the space requirements for the battery?