A feasibility study of the 1.5-axis tracking model in utility-scale solar PV plants
View/ Open
File version
Accepted Manuscript (AM)
Author(s)
Wong, J
Bai, F
Saha, TK
Tan, RHG
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2021
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Many solar tracking technologies have been developed with the aim of improving the energy performance of solar PV installations. Among these, single-axis tracking (SAT) systems give good economic prospect for ground-mounted PV plants but experience inevitable power loss when the trackers diverge from the incident solar irradiance during winter. The 1.5-axis tracking (1.5AT) model is developed in recent years to achieve a balance between the benefits and shortcomings of the SAT and dual-axis tracking (DAT) systems. Despite the anticipated superiority of the 1.5AT, there is a lack of literature on the methodology to analytically ...
View more >Many solar tracking technologies have been developed with the aim of improving the energy performance of solar PV installations. Among these, single-axis tracking (SAT) systems give good economic prospect for ground-mounted PV plants but experience inevitable power loss when the trackers diverge from the incident solar irradiance during winter. The 1.5-axis tracking (1.5AT) model is developed in recent years to achieve a balance between the benefits and shortcomings of the SAT and dual-axis tracking (DAT) systems. Despite the anticipated superiority of the 1.5AT, there is a lack of literature on the methodology to analytically study the potential and feasibility of the 1.5AT model, especially from a global perspective. In this paper, a comprehensive feasibility study has been conducted to evaluate the energy performance and shading analysis of the 1.5AT model. The developed methodology serves as a general benchmark to explore the prospects of the 1.5AT model at different geographical locations and seasons. This encourages further research and deployment of the 1.5AT model as a potential alternative to improve the return of investment for various PV system stakeholders.
View less >
View more >Many solar tracking technologies have been developed with the aim of improving the energy performance of solar PV installations. Among these, single-axis tracking (SAT) systems give good economic prospect for ground-mounted PV plants but experience inevitable power loss when the trackers diverge from the incident solar irradiance during winter. The 1.5-axis tracking (1.5AT) model is developed in recent years to achieve a balance between the benefits and shortcomings of the SAT and dual-axis tracking (DAT) systems. Despite the anticipated superiority of the 1.5AT, there is a lack of literature on the methodology to analytically study the potential and feasibility of the 1.5AT model, especially from a global perspective. In this paper, a comprehensive feasibility study has been conducted to evaluate the energy performance and shading analysis of the 1.5AT model. The developed methodology serves as a general benchmark to explore the prospects of the 1.5AT model at different geographical locations and seasons. This encourages further research and deployment of the 1.5AT model as a potential alternative to improve the return of investment for various PV system stakeholders.
View less >
Journal Title
Solar Energy
Volume
216
Copyright Statement
© 2021 Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, providing that the work is properly cited.
Subject
Electrical engineering
Environmental engineering
Engineering
Built environment and design