111–120 of 143 posts
If you know the lat/lon of the panel (they don’t move right?) and the current clock time, just point it at the current Sun position if it’s daytime? Wouldn’t that be as optimal as possible?
The article states that it works for suboptimal situations with shade and reflections and whatnot.
Why? Surely the exactly position of the sun can be calculated?
I used to be like OP. (have a similar background and have similar interests in tech for the planet) Then I realised couple of things, an humbling experience: 1) given any position on earth, you can compute exactly what's the optimal inclination at any given point in time for a PV to maximize the energy production. Sure, there are reflection and secondary irradiation conditions (eg.: there is a lake close to it), but…
On a large scale motorized sun tracking photovoltaics is very costly. The systems that can take the wind loading of six 1.65 x 1.00 meter size 60-cell panels on a pole cost more than the panels. Needs like a 6" OD sch80 pipe set into a concrete foundation. Commodity fixed angle ground mount photovoltaics arrays are low cost. If you do the dollar and kWh produced in year calculation for spending $40,000 on fixed mount…
But I do wonder if heliostats might see quite a revival in agrovoltaics: there, you want a certain distance between panels anyways, and perhaps the plants won't mind if you steal a little more light off-noon in exchange for less shadowing at noon. Electricity supply/demand would certainly applaud this bias, in a market with lots of photovoltaics a Wh at noon is certainly worth less than those closer the the periphery of the daily sun cycle.
And if you do agrovoltaics right, the structure will be expensive anyways (making the markup for heliostat insignificant) because imho it's still just an unfinished prototype if the structures for holding the panels aren't designed to double as an overhead rail system for farming powertools that could become a considerable efficiency gain over the century-old game of tractor vs mud.
I used to be like OP. (have a similar background and have similar interests in tech for the planet) Then I realised couple of things, an humbling experience: 1) given any position on earth, you can compute exactly what's the optimal inclination at any given point in time for a PV to maximize the energy production. Sure, there are reflection and secondary irradiation conditions (eg.: there is a lake close to it), but…
I went on a solar power course at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales (~10 years ago, so perhaps this into may be somewhat out of date) and they'd calculated that the extra energy generated by moving a panel to the optimal direction during the day was less than the energy it took to move the panel, let along the extra costs of the mechanics. Bear in mind that in Wales there's plenty of cloudy weather durin…
I'm no engineer, so I can't determine whether it would work, but on the surface it looks like it should?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
On a large scale motorized sun tracking photovoltaics is very costly. The systems that can take the wind loading of six 1.65 x 1.00 meter size 60-cell panels on a pole cost more than the panels. Needs like a 6" OD sch80 pipe set into a concrete foundation. Commodity fixed angle ground mount photovoltaics arrays are low cost. If you do the dollar and kWh produced in year calculation for spending $40,000 on fixed mount…
Gotta admire the effortless mix up of metric and imperial units.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
On a large scale motorized sun tracking photovoltaics is very costly. The systems that can take the wind loading of six 1.65 x 1.00 meter size 60-cell panels on a pole cost more than the panels. Needs like a 6" OD sch80 pipe set into a concrete foundation. Commodity fixed angle ground mount photovoltaics arrays are low cost. If you do the dollar and kWh produced in year calculation for spending $40,000 on fixed mount…
Yeah, exactly. Tracking photovoltaics used to be worth it back when photovoltaics were $5 per watt. The price has dropped so much that even for fixed angle ground mounts, the mounting frames and labour to install them costs far more than the panels themselves. Sun-tracking is just not economical compared with cheap static panels. (I spent quite a lot of time on an idea for rooftop solar thermal power and was trying t…
For heating, photovoltaics supplying a heat pump is starting to give direct thermal a run for the money (well, not actually for the money yet, direct thermal is still cheaper, but at least in terms of how much you could harvest from a given roof area)
If money isn't an objection at all, e.g. if you strive for that sense of achievement of a good setup, there are hybrid modules that pick up the 20% or so photovoltaics achieves and still funnel the remaining energy into heating a liquid medium.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, exactly. Tracking photovoltaics used to be worth it back when photovoltaics were $5 per watt. The price has dropped so much that even for fixed angle ground mounts, the mounting frames and labour to install them costs far more than the panels themselves. Sun-tracking is just not economical compared with cheap static panels. (I spent quite a lot of time on an idea for rooftop solar thermal power and was trying t…
Thermal for heating/hot shower or thermal for some adventure in driving a generator? For heating, photovoltaics supplying a heat pump is starting to give direct thermal a run for the money (well, not actually for the money yet, direct thermal is still cheaper, but at least in terms of how much you could harvest from a given roof area) If money isn't an objection at all, e.g. if you strive for that sense of achievemen…
I had all the thermodynamics worked out and it would have been something like 5x as cost effective as photovoltaic. Then the cost of photovoltaic panels dropped 10x in a year. C'est la vie, at least my roof is covered in PV now. I've thought of running some tubing under the panels to pre-heat water for our solar hot water system but these days it's scarcely worth the bother (at least where I live which is pretty much perfect for solar power.)
I used to be like OP. (have a similar background and have similar interests in tech for the planet) Then I realised couple of things, an humbling experience: 1) given any position on earth, you can compute exactly what's the optimal inclination at any given point in time for a PV to maximize the energy production. Sure, there are reflection and secondary irradiation conditions (eg.: there is a lake close to it), but…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
On a large scale motorized sun tracking photovoltaics is very costly. The systems that can take the wind loading of six 1.65 x 1.00 meter size 60-cell panels on a pole cost more than the panels. Needs like a 6" OD sch80 pipe set into a concrete foundation. Commodity fixed angle ground mount photovoltaics arrays are low cost. If you do the dollar and kWh produced in year calculation for spending $40,000 on fixed mount…
Gotta admire the effortless mix up of metric and imperial units.
1954 - first practical silicon solar cell, Timeline of Solar Cells, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_solar_cells