The future of solar doesn't track the sun
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The future of solar doesn't track the sun
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Re: The future of solar doesn't track the sun
#2When panels are cheap what about vertical mounting? Less susceptible to hail and snow. And maybe placed north-south, to maximize production in morning and evening when it's needed most.
Re: The future of solar doesn't track the sun
#3[flagged]
Re: The future of solar doesn't track the sun
#4When panels are cheap what about vertical mounting? Less susceptible to hail and snow. And maybe placed north-south, to maximize production in morning and evening when it's needed most.
you also appear to get efficiency gains as vertical panels don’t get as hot - https://www.pv-magazine.com/2023/11/10/researchers-shed-ligh...
Re: The future of solar doesn't track the sun
#5[deleted]
Re: The future of solar doesn't track the sun
#6We researched this thoroughly in the early 2000s and came to pretty much the same conclusion even back then.
For us the main problem was the reliability of the mover. If enough panels face the wrong direction for long enough it is worse than facing the sun in a good enough fixed position all the time.
Our angle was to use a simple motor that runs with constant speed and use a special patented gear (called VIAX) to turn that simple movement into a sun following motion. The bet was that a still simple mechanical gear would be more reliable than complicated electronics.
In the end none of our simulations made us confident any moving solution wouldn't eat the profits.
EDIT: For anyone interested, here is the patent. I think it is a really nice idea. https://patents.google.com/patent/EP0114240A1/en
Re: The future of solar doesn't track the sun
#7When panels are cheap what about vertical mounting? Less susceptible to hail and snow. And maybe placed north-south, to maximize production in morning and evening when it's needed most.
I’ve seen some YouTube videos of people making solar fences with bi-facial panels. If I recall correctly on the one I was watching, they were going for morning and evening production and faced them east/west. One side would get the morning light then the other the evening light.
Re: The future of solar doesn't track the sun
#8[dead]
Re: The future of solar doesn't track the sun
#9When panels are cheap what about vertical mounting? Less susceptible to hail and snow. And maybe placed north-south, to maximize production in morning and evening when it's needed most.
It’s mentioned in the article that sunlight from near the horizon passes through a lot more atmosphere, which attenuates the light so much that you might as well not bother with the panels.
Re: The future of solar doesn't track the sun
#10One cool observation of an grid wide advantage is that single axis really normalize the power curve per panel. There are many reasons way more consistent production would be better.
I am curious if just having more fixed panels normalize production at scale