Sunfolding’s new TopoTrack rows are reportedly 10 occasions shorter than conventional trackers, they usually can present a 20 diploma distinction between trackers, thus bettering 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 advanced, which may make set up and upkeep costly. Sunfolding builders have found that pneumatics supply an easier 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 by an influence outage.
They’ll additionally work by shedding air and may 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 also can face up to extraordinarily low temperatures the place conventional trackers have points.
As famous by Chip McDaniel in Industrial Gear Information, pneumatics supply the benefit of simplicity, low price and reliability, offering “a simple path of motion,” offering vital pressure in a small house.
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 acquired his bachelors and masters in electrical engineering and pc science from MIT, with a give attention to 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. Primarily based 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 completely different ranges, one aspect expands and tilts the photo voltaic construction in the other way. The Sunfolding system’s AirDrive X actuator reportedly weighs lower than 50 kilos. Wes Fuller, vp of gross sales and strategic partnerships, stated pv journal USA that two folks can raise them and stick them to the posts anchored within the floor. Automotive-grade pneumatic harnesses join the availability air system—one for each 5 MW. These methods are pre-assembled and will be dropped on website.
The pneumatic system has fewer vital factors of failure than conventional mechanical methods, dramatically decreasing 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 initiatives 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 impartial, shortened tracker strains.
The corporate stories that TopoTrack rows are 10 occasions shorter than conventional trackers, and that they’ll present a 20 diploma distinction between trackers, thus bettering slope tolerance between rows and permitting within the articulation of the terrain, together with the entire directional change of the terrain if essential.
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 mission website will be elevated if the tracker-to-tracker distance is diminished. Fuller famous that TopoTrack can scale back the necessity for grading by an estimated 97%, thereby leading to extra price 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 ability in manufacturing it within the Midwest, which allows brief lead occasions and diminished buying dangers.
TopoTrack has lately been deployed at a website with strict environmental safety. This website options advanced terrain at excessive snow load places. TopoTrack expertise reportedly allows the client to carry out zero grading on this website, tremendously decreasing the price of managing advanced terrain and danger tolerance.
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