In today's terawatt (TW) PV installation era, solar tracker-based systems have become synonymous with large-scale PV utility-scale projects. The advancements in solar tracker-based technologies offer multiple scopes of further improvement in enhancing utility-scale PV projects' reliability, cost, and efficiency. Advancements in tracker design and integration of digital technology into solar tracking systems are some of the critical routes to improve tracker-based solar project LCOE.
Some of the mainstream solar tracker suppliers, like Antai Solar, chose the pathways of advancement in the tracker's structural optimization, pre-installation in the fabrication unit, and improvements in intelligent tracking algorithms. These pathways of advancement were the topic of Nicolas Peinemann, sales director IBERO America region at Antai Solar, in the recently concluded TaiyangNews Virtual Conference on Solar Power Plant Developments 2024.
Structural Advancements
Peinemann stressed on the use of advanced materials, and the design of the company's tracker structural components to enhance system reliability. He explained that by selecting new raw materials and customizing the geometrics of specific parts of tracker structures, Antai Solar's tracker achieved an improved strength-to-weight ratio with optimal load-bearing capabilities. The analysis of load characteristics of the torque tube coupled with customized key elements upon the tracker or fixed rack system analyzes the areas of high stress and strain, which are optimized by redesign and iterative simulation and modeling, said Peinemann.
This continuous improvement process leads to the new lightweight tracker structure with improved robustness, which improves system performance by allowing more precise tracking of the sun and durability over time. The company uses additive manufacturing technology, basically a 3D printing technology, to create new models of topologically optimized key structures. Along with reducing the transportation and installation cost by lowering the structure's weight, the company is working on the pre-installed modular design trackers at its factory to reduce on-site time-consuming bolting and manual labor. Antai emphasized that the pre-engineered modular design assures higher precision, better quality control, and minimal wastage of materials in a controlled factory environment, which greatly improves the turnaround time of PV plant installation and commissioning. This shortened project commissioning duration provides developers an early revenue stream and faster energy delivery to the clients, which improves the project's financial viability, said Peinemann.
Advancement in digitalization
As a young PV tracker company, Antai Solar is pursuing excellence in its existing astronomical control algorithm by taking into account many variables in the design of new software, which has multiple additional features. Its new features include backtracking in the morning and evening, 3D terrain topography of the sites, external climatic characteristics, and the bifaciality of the modules. According to Peinemann, the new software works in a closed loop by receiving real-time feedback from connected inverters based on its maximum power point tracking (MPPT) ranges. Antai claims that its new astronomical control algorithm has the potential to improve the output energy between 3% and 8% compared to conventional tracking systems.
The China headquartered tracker company, with its 33.2 GW global installed capacity and a wide portfolio of application-based single-axis tracking systems, is mainly promoting 3 models – 2 models of One-in-Portrait (1P), and 1 model of Two-in-portrait (2P) configuration. The 1P Antai tracker models are offered under the TAI SIMPLE and TAI SPACE brand names, whereas the 2P sells under the TAI UNIVERSAL brand.
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