Smartflower

[tanner0441]

Hi

I was sent a link to a solar company that supply some very pretty solar panels. (Smartflower) The array is circular, the individual panels are aranged like the petals on a flower. They are like a fan and every night as it gets dark they all rotate and stack on top of each other. The complete array is mounted on a 360 degree rotating gimble, they can all swing from vertical to horizontal. There is a repeating video of the mount in action as the sun moves across the sky and then folding up as it gets dark.

There are several options including battery backed. I have read through their glowing tesimonals and all their advertising going into raptures about how Aattractive they are, but no where does it mention the rated output of the device, because they are sun following they maintain they are 40% more efficient than a fixed array but still no rated output either voltage or wattage.  Oh the basic installation cost is £23,000 GBP

Brian

[clockmanFRA]

Yes, first came onto the market about 6 years ago.

Output depends on the PV type and up-to-date manufacturing specs with the cells but at the time we reckoned only about max 2.5kW.

We here had developed, in 2012, this 8 panel solar tracker that had just survived Hurricane force winds, and material cost for the Solar tracker was about £800 then the PV panel price.

We kept the design simple, and minimal but strong, very much to Hugh Piggotts concepts.   All three are still up and working and using the US guys, Redrock, simple little sun follower circuit that uses LED's. 

However, i now recommend that any form of PV Solar Tracker is just no longer financial viable, ie, its Cost Effectiveness. As its still moving about and even simple maintenance can become a pain.   Yea, you get about 1/3rd more produced PV power, but hell modern new PV panels are at about £110 for a 360w panel.

So I recommend just increasing your PV Static array by a 1/3rd more panels.   And a Static array has no moving parts and minimal materials in its simple structure. Just ensure that the Static array is at least 1.2m above ground level so that sheep can still graze the underneath, then the land around and under the static array is still productive, and not weed killer and sterile gravel/concrete etc.



And my sheep doing their stuff amongst the trackers.








 

[bigrockcandymountain]

I'm always surprised at people trying to solve problems that aren't actually problems.  Are solar arrays that ugly? Is a fake mechanical flower any less ugly? Are wind turbines ugly? Are fake trees with turbines mounted on them less ugly?

 This one really gets me going.  In a world where renewables finally compete no problem in normal dollars with fossil fuels, people are finding ways to make them astronomically more expensive and therefore less feasible. 

[tanner0441]

Hi

It wasshown to me by someone who I am making a couple of simple leg arrangement to mount on top of a shipping container, two panels two stands, base bolted or welded to the top of the  container.  Little MPPT controller and one giant battery. The battery wasn't my doing it was recommenced by an expert... (ex is a has been,a spurt is a drip under pressure.)

I finished the leg assemblies this morning now waiting for the etch primer prior to painting then hopefully next week get it fitted. I also believe  the affore mentioned giant and expensive battery may have stood with no way of charging it for too long. why recommend buying the battery before the means to charge it. It is a woman in her sixties so no way can she lift it.

I don't like seeing people ripped off so I am doing the complete installation at net cost.

Brian.

[clockmanFRA]

Nice one Brian, well done.

BRCM, .......  Its a real issue at present.

[tanner0441]

Hi

The very big very expesive battery was delivered to me yesterday. It is a Varta 250Ah it arrived 4.30 and I tried to put it on charge imediately. as I dont have an inteligent charger that is capable of delivering more than 3 amps I put it onto a starter, charger that has 12A or 2A but the voltage was so low the charger couldn't even see it, I flashed it with a little charger to start it and left it on 12A for about 8 hours and it came up to 11.3V left it on overnight at 2A and the voltage had climbed to 11.9V back on 12A and over today it passed the 12V point this afternoon it reached 13V and by this evening it was flicking between 13.5 and 14.2. The SOH on my analyser hasn't made it past 80%.

All I can do now is shut it off leave it for 24 hours to stabilise and test again. I have nothing that will load it enough apart from a 1Kw inverter and a fan heater. 

Brian

[Bruce S]

That 11.3V has me a little worried. Most new batteries are still around the 12V mark even after sitting for a long time.
IS this a FLA? or??

Bruce S

[DamonHD]

My ancient 40Ah gel that had been left for years I think (though fully charged) was showing 11.9V just before I sent it away for recycling.

Rgds

Damon

[tanner0441]

Hi

The battery is flooded lead acid. I stopped charging it around 11,30 last night, this morning about 7.30 I clipped the battery analiser on it and went through the menus. My analyser doesn't go high enough for the EN rating so I tested on CCA at 1200 amps the battery came back as good but with the SOH at 78% hopefully a few cycles it should improve.

Having now stood all day it is reading 12.9 Volts and stable. I connected the solar controler onto it and added a 10 amp load the the controller dropped 0.2 of a volt through the controller as soon as I connected the MC4 connectors from the panel the the voltage popped back up again stepping through the menu on the controller the panel was outputing 4 amps just propped up against a sack truck with hazy afternoon sun and not at the optimum angle I was happy.

I will set both panels up on their stands tomorrow and monitor it as the sun traverses. All being wel I can deliver and install it before the weekend to a relieved client.

Brian