Arctech Announces Launch of White Paper on Increasing PV Energy Yield with Superior Stow Parameters

Arctech, the world’s leading tracking, racking, and BIPV solutions provider, just launched a new white paper that explains the benefits of a truly stiff tracker design in increasing energy yield. This is obtained by enabling superior stow parameters in terms of wind speed and tracker tilt.

Larger format, high-power modules are becoming the current trend in PV plants, as they lower the levelized cost of energy and balance of system costs. Nevertheless, larger modules increase the PV system area and also loading and defection of the trackers’ structure.

Savvy tracker manufacturers like Arctech have increased the rigidity of their systems to cope with these new panels and not only keep, but even increase stability under challenging wind conditions.

Arctech has been the first supplier who upgraded both their 2P and 1P tracker lines to a truly rigid design through an innovative “multi-drive” mechanism. These stiff trackers can safely stow horizontally, which is vital to lower the wind pressure onto the new large-format modules and prevent cracking and delamination. Stiff trackers also enable increasing the wind stow speed threshold and thus extend the operational wind speed range. These optimized stow parameters can also help prevent energy losses and increase energy generation and revenue to a considerable extent, as shown in the whitepaper.

This study uses easily accessible methods to prove this particular benefit by comparing Arctech’s stiff trackers and traditional flexible trackers through numerical analysis. It analyses how solar trackers with the multi-point drive mechanism enable power generation with an example of a case study in Texas, USA. SkyLine II allows for 1.6% higher annual energy collection, when compared with traditional trackers that stow at much lower wind speeds. For typical plant Capex and PPA pricing in the area was equivalent to an IRR increase of about 0.2% or $3M more in revenue throughout the life of the project.

Click here to download the white paper.

Source: Arctech