[RE-wrenches] ] PV Tracker - Best available?

[Dana]

I have contributed this before but hope it helps.

I had a set (6) 250 watt PV on a tracker and (6) 250 watt PV on a fixed roof
mount here at the office.

Year round average gain of tracked over fixed 32%, & almost equal
differential month to month.

 

I am a total tracker advocate esp. in off grid systems where capturing all
the watts possible due to a limited solar window is critical or footprint
for the array is limited, trackers rule.

That said, I have costed out 3KW grid tie designs where the client wanted a
tracker and the materials cost was +$1200 with tracking VS fixed allowing
for the offset of additional output on the tracker at 32% less PV required
VS a flat 3KW fixed mount on a pole.



I have to say the reliability on Wattsun trackers is superb I cannot speak
for competitors tracking units. I have used them for 20+ years and today’s
Wattsun/Array Tech. tracker is bomber stout.

 

Trackers have their place, & with the decreased $/watt on PV it’s hard to
pencil out the rational at times.  My next off grid home in ID will be
tracked as the space required on a 14° slope was too big a footprint to
install a fixed array.  One other point was reflectivity: The County
required a reflectivity study for fixed arrays to prove the array would not
cross a county road, and a tracked array reflects back to the sun. One less
hoop to jump through, & a big bonus!

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dana Orzel 

Great Solar Works, Inc -  NABCEP # 051112-136

E - dana at solarwork.com  - Web - solarwork.com 

O - 970.626.5253  C - 208.721.7003

"Responsible Technologies for Responsible People since 1988"  

P Please consider the environment before printing this email.

 

 

From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On
Behalf Of jay
Sent: Sunday, October 04, 2015 9:14 AM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: [RE-wrenches] PV Tracker - Best available?

 

I agree that in many places installing a tracker isn’t economic, but not
everyone does things with cost as the goal.

 

I’ve installed trackers because people wanted to see it move.

I’ve installed trackers for folks who didn’t want to adjust for seasons.
Yea we can have a long discussion about the economics of all that.  

 

But the point is that this is what the customer wanted.  And I’ve gotten in
big trouble in the past for not doing what the customer wanted.  

So installing a tracker probably isn’t going to be as cost effective as
fixed, its going to have more MX cost than fixed.  But its not wrong.

 

jay

 

peltz power

On Oct 3, 2015, at 10:19 PM, Allan Sindelar <allan at sindelarsolar.com> wrote:

 

Bill's point is well made, and equally relevant in heating dominated
regions. These typically are northern latitudes, where winter days are
shorter, and mountain regions, where severe winter weather keeps people
indoors, meaning more lights, more indoor activities and more boiler
runtime. The greatest loads occur when the solar resource is the least and
tracking gives the least advantage.

May I suggest that you sell your client on being smarter than his neighbor
with the tracker? Present it well and you could end up with a more
productive array and fewer maintenance headaches.
Allan



Allan Sindelar
allan at sindelarsolar.com
NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional
NABCEP Certified Technical Sales Professional
New Mexico EE98J Journeyman Electrician
Founder (Retired), Positive Energy, Inc.
505 780-2738 cell





 

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