Single-Axis East-West Sun Tracking Ground Mount Design

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Fearless

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I'm attempting to design a single-axis east-west sun-tracking ground mount. I know it's better to just add more panels. I still want to pull this off. I'll be using a simple reliable slew drive and a $50 controller that monitors the wind strength and levels when high wind is detected. I'm using 32 Bluesun BSM550M10-72HBD (https://www.bluesunpv.com/uploadfile/downloads/BSM550M10-72HBD-USA.pdf) divided into 2 arrays. I'm utilizing 2 1/4" 14 gauge galvanized square tubing for the solar panel mounting frame. The panel frame will be mounted on what looks like the pipe that holds up a see-saw. The post pipes will be 5 - 4 1/2" OD galvanized hexagon pipe. The horizontal turning pipe will be a 2" OD pipe.

I'm brand new to this so any tips are much appreciated.

Thanks,

Greg
groundmountforum.png
controller.png
 
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I'm also working on a tracker, just because.

I expected a central bar/pivot point to act as the axis for your slew drive to pivot the array. How are the pillow blocks and sleep drive going to mount to the frame?

What size slew drive are you going with?

I'm just going simple and bolting the panels straight to the frame.
 
400bird said:
I'm also working on a tracker, just because.

I expected a central bar/pivot point to act as the axis for your slew drive to pivot the array. How are the pillow blocks and sleep drive going to mount to the frame?

What size slew drive are you going with?

I'm just going simple and bolting the panels straight to the frame.
Click to expand...

Something like this.
clamp.png

Slew Drive:
Rated Output Torque=6300N.m

Holding Torque=45Kn.m

The pillow block bearings mount to 4 of the poles. The 2" pipe turns in them.
 
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More planning. After wrong answers from AI bots for distances, I figured them out myself. I'm having a hard time figuring out how far apart the rows of arrays should be. I also picked up 36 of the 2 1/4" square tubing for the frames today.

mountingangles.png
 
pvgirl said:
This article goes in to the math for inter row spacing: https://www.greentechrenewables.com/article/determining-module-inter-row-spacing along with data from here(link seems to be wrong in the article): http://solardata.uoregon.edu/SunChartProgram.php
Click to expand...
Thanks. Yeah, I found that site and if I tried working with formulas my results would be more wrong than the AI bots I was feeding. I was not successful in finding a tool where I could feed it my numbers to get the answer. I did find a 2X height suggestion.
 
There's no perfect spacing, at some point, no matter how far away, the sun side array will shade the next one over.

You need to figure out how late in the evening/early in the morning, the shade is ok.

Some max tilt numbers:
Maybe when the sun is at 20°?
That would make the spacing ~40' between rows to remove all shading.
30°? ~24' between rows
40°? ~16' between rows

Maybe your ok with shading the bottom row for some portion of the morning? You could cut out half the width of your array.
 
400bird said:
There's no perfect spacing, at some point, no matter how far away, the sun side array will shade the next one over.
Click to expand...
Yes, I found that out this morning. I stood where I my first array would go and my shadow was about 50 yards. :)
 
Fearless said:
More planning. After wrong answers from AI bots for distances, I figured them out myself. I'm having a hard time figuring out how far apart the rows of arrays should be. I also picked up 36 of the 2 1/4" square tubing for the frames today.

View attachment 171102
Click to expand...

I would highly recommend using SketchUp to layout your arrays and calculate inter-row spacing. You can geo-locate your design and then SketchUp will calculate shadows for any day/time you select. Has really helped me plan out my 3 tracking arrays. Oh and just use the 30 day trial which is free if you don't need a yearly subscription.
 
Thanks to the city of College Station. Switching to 2 of these.

groundmountforum.png
 
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I think it is preferable to avoid rows shading each other.
How about starting with all panels horizontal as sun appears on the horizon.
As sun rises, only tilt toward it to the extent you can without causing shade.
Similar after tilting toward afternoon sun - reduce tilt as needed to prevent shading.

Some PV panels are designed so shade on edge doesn't affect other cells. They are internally 72s6p or something like that, e.g. SunPower P17. But conventional panels with all cells wired in a serpentine, or half-cut, edge shading kills (1/3 or half) of production.

I think single-axis tracker would be great for a Southern facing hillside.
 
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