Lightweight Two-Axis Solar Panel Tracking Using Rotating Tube Assembly
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing solar panel tracking systems are heavy and cumbersome, limiting their installation on agricultural land and hindering solar light penetration, while also being complex and costly due to the need for sophisticated two-axis alignment for maximum energy efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A two-axis handling system for solar panels with a lightweight, two-dimensional 'checkerboard' structure using rotating main and secondary tubes with integrated motors and reducing mechanisms, allowing for efficient orientation and assembly, and featuring stepper motors and gear transmission for reliable movement, with a focus on minimizing weight and encumbrance to facilitate agricultural use.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If sophisticated two-axis tracking systems are used to maximize energy efficiency, then energy production increases by 35%-40%, but construction complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The tracking system is divided into modular components: multiple independent tubes (first tube, second tube, third tube, fourth tube) that can be assembled in a checkerboard pattern. Each tube functions as an independent tracking unit, allowing the system to achieve complex two-axis tracking through simple modular repetition rather than a single complex structure
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from traditional single-plane tracking to three-dimensional checkerboard arrangement. Tubes are positioned at different spatial locations and orientations, creating a multi-dimensional tracking architecture that achieves superior energy capture while maintaining structural simplicity through geometric distribution
2Reliability
If traditional heavy tracking structures are used to ensure stability and alignment, then tracking reliability improves, but weight and encumbrance increase, limiting installation on agricultural land
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs localized stabilization through individual tube structures rather than a heavy monolithic framework. Each tube is designed with specific geometric properties and connection points that provide stability locally, allowing the entire system to achieve reliable tracking through distributed structural quality rather than uniform heavy construction
Solution Approach 2:
The invention uses composite structural design combining tubular frameworks with strategic bracing elements. The checkerboard arrangement of tubes creates a composite lattice structure that provides high strength-to-weight ratio, achieving tracking reliability without the mass of traditional solid structures
3Stability of the object's composition
If dense supporting pole structures are used to support heavy panels, then structural stability improves, but soil accessibility and agricultural machinery passage are hindered
Solution Approach 1:
The supporting structure is segmented into widely spaced tube units arranged in a checkerboard pattern rather than dense pole arrays. This segmentation creates large open spaces between structural elements, allowing agricultural machinery to pass freely while each tube maintains local stability through its geometric design and connection system
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses three-dimensional spatial arrangement of tubes at elevated positions, creating a lifted checkerboard framework. This vertical dimensionality separates the tracking function from the ground plane, maintaining structural stability through spatial distribution while preserving ground-level accessibility for agriculture
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 system achieves efficient solar panel alignment with reduced weight and encumbrance, enabling increased energy production while allowing passage of agricultural machinery and maintaining soil accessibility, with improved reliability and longevity due to protected mechanical and electrical components.
Implementation Method 1
The main tube (4), in the proximity of at least one of its ends and in its interior, comprises a first motor (41) interfaced with a reducing mechanism (42)
Implementation Method 2
a reducing mechanism (42) in which there is a central shaft (43) which receives the rotation of said motor and at least a pair of rotating satellite pinions (44) and (44')
Data Source
AI summary
A handling system for receptor devices of solar energy suitable for allowing the handling of said devices on a first axis and on a second axis, substantially orthogonal with respect to each other, said system being constrainable on fixed structures composed of supporting poles kept in position by a network of tie-rods. The system comprises a main tube rotating around said first axis, to which a plurality of secondary tubes are connected, also rotating around their own axis, fixed substantially perpendicularly to the main tube, the receptor devices being fixed on said secondary tubes. The main rotating tube comprising both the handling mechanism around the first axis and the handling mechanism around the second axis activated by a respective first motor and second motor.