Solar tracker

For solar tracking in plants, see Heliotropism. For solar telescope tracking, see Solar telescope.

Dual axis solar trackers
Solar tracking
Suntactics dual-axis solar trackers are used for small for medium-sized solar production farms. Useful for small business solar power and battery charging.

A solar tracker is a device that orients a payload toward the Sun. Payloads are usually solar panels, parabolic troughs, Fresnel reflectors, lenses, or the mirrors of a heliostat.

For flat-panel photovoltaic systems, trackers are used to minimize the angle of incidence between the incoming sunlight and a photovoltaic panel, sometimes known as the cosine error. Reducing this angle increases the amount of energy produced from a fixed amount of installed power-generating capacity. In standard photovoltaic applications, it was predicted in 2008–2009 that trackers could be used in at least 85% of commercial installations greater than one megawatt from 2009 to 2012.[1][2]

As the pricing, reliability, and performance of single-axis trackers have improved, the systems have been installed in an increasing percentage of utility-scale projects. According to data from WoodMackenzie/GTM Research, global solar tracker shipments hit a record 14.5 gigawatts in 2017. This represents growth of 32 percent year-over-year, with similar or greater growth projected as large-scale solar deployment accelerates.[3]

In concentrator photovoltaics (CPV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) applications, trackers are used to enable the optical components in the CPV and CSP systems. The optics in concentrated solar applications accept the direct component of sunlight light and therefore must be oriented appropriately to collect energy. Tracking systems are found in all concentrator applications because such systems collect the sun's energy with maximum efficiency when the optical axis is aligned with incident solar radiation.[4][5]

  1. ^ Customers Recognize the Power of Solar Tracking Retrieved 4 March 2012
  2. ^ Tracking Systems Vital to Solar Success Archived 5 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 4 March 2012
  3. ^ Munsell, Mike (27 February 2018). "Global Solar Tracker Shipments Grow 32% in 2017, NEXTracker Leads the Market". greentechmedia.com.
  4. ^ Antonio L. Luque; Viacheslav M. Andreev (2007). Concentrator Photovoltaics. Springer Verlag. ISBN 978-3-540-68796-2.
  5. ^ Ignacio Luque-Heredia et al., "The Sun Tracker in Concentrator Photovoltaics" in Cristobal, A.B., Martí, A., and Luque, A. Next Generation Photovoltaics, Springer Verlag, 2012 ISBN 978-3642233692