The volumes of air going through the outside unit (even at low speed) are HUGE, and it matters not one bit which side of the house it's located. At high speed a 1.5 ton like the -FE18 will be moving something like 4000-5000 cubic feet per minute, and yes, there's quite a rush of air standing right in front of the fan! There's a big whoosh and some hum, at high speed, but not the propeller-blast vibe of a light plane on a takeoff roll. (They designed them to be tolerably quiet even at max-speed in dense urban environments.)
Pay attention to the clearance specifications- if you make it too tight to the wall you can impede air flow- the way it's boxed in from the sides in that picture looks way out of spec. It looks like they were in the middle of building a shed roof/awning over the top of the unit, which is good practice for protecting it from eave-cornice falls and roof avalanches, etc, but this one looks too restricted.
If there is room to install it completely under the deck or very open crawl space or pier-foundation, that usually provides enough protection from both snow-drift and roof avalanches, etc. I've seen an under-deck installation work pretty well at a ski-condo in Smuggler's Notch, VT where they get deep snowfalls fairly often (deeper than at sea level in the marittimes, but maybe not quite as deep as the Gaspe' highlands.)