Sunfolding’s new TopoTrack rows are reportedly 10 occasions shorter than conventional trackers, and so they can present a 20 diploma distinction between trackers, thus enhancing slope tolerance between rows.
From pv journal USA
What units Sunfolding’s terrain-following tracker other than different designs is pneumatics, a 360-year-old expertise that converts energy into movement.
Conventional trackers are extra mechanically complicated, which might make set up and upkeep costly. Sunfolding builders have found that pneumatics provide a less complicated methodology with benefits over some photo voltaic designs. A few of the benefits embody a reservoir (or bladder) for storing air to allow them to proceed working via an influence outage.
They will additionally work by dropping air and might proceed with out the specter of overheating. Learn extra about photo voltaic and pneumatics in Sunfolding’s white paper. With out batteries or metallic drive parts, the pneumatic expertise can even face up to extraordinarily low temperatures the place conventional trackers have points.
As famous by Chip McDaniel in Industrial Tools Information, pneumatics provide the benefit of simplicity, low value and reliability, offering “a simple path of motion,” offering vital pressure in a small area.
The patented AirDrive expertise utilized in Sunfolding was invented by Leila Madrone, the corporate’s founder and chief expertise officer. Madrone is a roboticist, having obtained his bachelors and masters in electrical engineering and laptop science from MIT, with a deal with robotics and mechatronics. Early in his profession he labored on automation for the genomics trade and the commercialization of NASA robotics {hardware}. Based in 2012, Sunfolding was spun off from MIT’s Otherlab. In 2016, the corporate gained a $4.2 million ARPA award for a “pneumatically-actuated PV monitoring system.”
The AirDrive system
On the coronary heart of its monitoring system is AirDrive. Based mostly on Madrone’s invention, it consists of versatile bladders (proven above) enclosed in a metallic housing with a bladder within the east and one within the west. When the bladders are pressurized to totally different ranges, one aspect expands and tilts the photo voltaic construction in the wrong way. The Sunfolding system’s AirDrive X actuator reportedly weighs lower than 50 kilos. Wes Fuller, vice chairman of gross sales and strategic partnerships, mentioned pv journal USA that two individuals can elevate them and stick them to the posts anchored within the floor. Automotive-grade pneumatic harnesses join the provision air system—one for each 5 MW. These techniques are pre-assembled and might be dropped on web site.
The pneumatic system has fewer crucial factors of failure than conventional mechanical techniques, dramatically lowering upkeep prices, in accordance with Sunfolding. The AirDrive X actuator makes use of superior polymers offered by DuPont, which helps them face up to publicity to wind, warmth, rain and snow.
Sunfolding’s first product is the T29 tracker, which reportedly revolutionized the tracker panorama with using pneumatics, put in in 39 tasks in 12 states together with websites in California, Colorado, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Texas.
TopoTrack, launched in September 2022, is designed for various terrains. Just like the T29, it makes use of AirDrive expertise, however has mechanically unbiased, shortened tracker strains.
The corporate stories that TopoTrack rows are 10 occasions shorter than conventional trackers, and that they will present a 20 diploma distinction between trackers, thus enhancing slope tolerance between rows and permitting within the articulation of the terrain, together with the entire directional change of the terrain if vital.
The design makes use of two poles, two actuators and two purlins. On account of the tracker’s flexibility and ease, Sunfolding says the tracker footprint on a undertaking web site might be elevated if the tracker-to-tracker distance is decreased. Fuller famous that TopoTrack can cut back the necessity for grading by an estimated 97%, thereby leading to further value financial savings.
Headquartered in Alameda, Calif., Sunfolding’s posts, actuators and purlins are made within the U.S. The corporate works with auto trade part suppliers to fabricate the AirDrive, and stories that 90% of its invoice of supplies comes from inside a 250-mile radius of the power in manufacturing it within the Midwest, which permits brief lead occasions and decreased buying dangers.
TopoTrack has just lately been deployed at a web site with strict environmental safety. This web site options complicated terrain at excessive snow load areas. TopoTrack expertise reportedly permits the client to do zero grading on this web site, tremendously lowering the price of managing complicated terrain and danger tolerance.
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