Development of a Solar-Tracking System for Horizontal Single-Axis PV Arrays Using Spatial Projection Analysis

Bin Huang (), Jialiang Huang (), Ke Xing, Lida Liao, Peiling Xie, Meng Xiao and Wei Zhao
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Bin Huang: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha 410004, China
Jialiang Huang: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha 410004, China
Ke Xing: UniSA STEM, University of South Australia, Adelaide 5095, Australia
Lida Liao: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha 410004, China
Peiling Xie: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha 410004, China
Meng Xiao: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha 410004, China
Wei Zhao: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha 410004, China

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 10, 1-19

Abstract: Uniaxial trackers are widely employed as the frame for solar photovoltaic (PV) panel installation. However, when used in sloping terrain scenarios such as mountain and hill regions, it is essential to apply a solar-tracking strategy with the sloping factors considered, to eliminate the shading effects between arrays and reduce the electricity production loss due to terrain changes. Based on a uniaxial tracker on the sloping terrain of a PV farm located in Ningxia, this study established a uniaxial solar-tracking strategy for sloping terrain by integrating a spatial projection model with a dynamic shadow assessment method. In the proposed strategy, the optimal tilt angle of the PV array and related desirable adjustment are identified taking into consideration major parameters such as the shadow area ratio S and the average solar irradiance intensity G . A tool underpinned by Matlab Simulink has also been developed to realize the proposed solar-tracking strategy. With the input of a simulated ramp signal β and the dynamically changed time parameters, the tracking angle of PV arrays over the simulated duration is accurately predicted, followed by a series of experimental validations conducted on the winter solstice and a typical sunny day (15 September). Moreover, the study also explored the terrain impacts on solar tracking by comparing the sloping terrain and flat terrain applications. The analytic and experimental results indicate that (a) the maximum value of the G ( β ) function could serve as the input to identify the optimal tracking angle; (b) the application of the flat terrain tracking (FTT) strategy in sloping terrain would result in a reduction of average solar irradiance intensity harvested by the PV arrays with varying degrees; (c) in the context of an east–west −7° sloping terrain, compared with the FTT strategy, the sloping terrain tracking (STT) strategy enabled anti-shading tracking, and then increased the daily PV electricity yield by 0.094 kWh/kWp, which is around 1.48% of the daily energy production; (d) given a measurement with annual scale, the STT strategy could cause a 1.26% increase in the energy harvesting with a flat uniaxial PV array on a −7° slope terrain, achieving an annual increase of 25.16 kWh/kWp. The experimental comparative analysis validated the precision of the proposed solar-tracking model, which has far-reaching significance for achieving automatic solar-tracking of PV modules, as well as improving the capacity and efficiency of PV systems.

Keywords: solar PV; sloping topography; horizontal single-axis array; automatic solar-tracking strategy; spatial projection; Simulink simulations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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