Floating module for modular solar panel platforms
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current floating solar panel systems are bulky, difficult to transport and assemble, and not designed to withstand the fluctuations and instability of aquatic environments, limiting their installation on water surfaces.
Innovation Solution
A floating module comprising a rigid thermoplastic component with structural reinforcements and a flexible component with encapsulated air, allowing for buoyancy and easy assembly, featuring a valve access cavity for maintenance and connection ports for module integration, enabling a compact and stable platform for solar panel installation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a floating structure is manufactured using roto-moulding or extrusion blow-moulding techniques to create a thermoplastic rigid component with encapsulated air, then the structure gains buoyancy control capability, but the system becomes bulky and difficult to transport and assemble
Solution Approach 1:
The floating structure is divided into multiple separable components: a rigid thermoplastic component providing structural support and a flexible component with encapsulated air providing buoyancy. These components can be assembled and disassembled independently, making the system easier to transport and assemble while maintaining buoyancy control capability through the flexible component's air encapsulation.
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible component with encapsulated air is confined inside the rigid component, creating a nested configuration where the buoyancy-providing flexible element is housed within the structurally-supportive rigid shell. This nested arrangement optimizes space utilization and simplifies the overall system configuration for transport and assembly.
2Reliability
If a thermoplastic resin foam encapsulated by two sheets of thermoplastic material is used to create the floating component, then the structure gains buoyancy, but the system becomes bulky and difficult to transport
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a flexible component with encapsulated air instead of bulky thermoplastic resin foam. The flexible component uses thin film or membrane structures to enclose the air, providing the necessary buoyancy while occupying significantly less space and being much easier to transport compared to rigid foam structures.
3Ease of manufacture
If the rigid component has a simple design without structural reinforcements, then the manufacturing process is simpler, but the component cannot withstand the loads and weights applied to the top surface in aquatic environments
Solution Approach 1:
The structural reinforcements (vertical ribs and horizontal base ribs) are pre-integrated into the rigid thermoplastic component during the injection molding manufacturing process. This preliminary incorporation of strengthening features allows the component to be manufactured in a single operation without requiring additional assembly steps, maintaining manufacturing simplicity while providing the necessary load-bearing capacity to withstand aquatic environmental loads.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides a compact, transportable, and stable floating platform capable of supporting solar panels on water surfaces, with enhanced structural resistance and ease of maintenance, addressing the challenges of bulkiness and instability in existing systems.
Implementation Method 1
a flexible component with encapsulated air or gas, wherein the flexible component is confined inside the rigid component
Data Source
AI summary
A floating module for modular solar panel platforms having two separate components mounted, a structural component that is a rigid component and a buoyancy component that is a flexible component allowing for a more compact and simple solution all-around. The floating module allows for a technologically more advanced floating component, easier to produce, transport and deploy than most currently available solutions.