What if a Solar Panel Becomes a Sunflower?

One of the most serious problems linked to solar energy application is panels’ efficiency in converting solar energy.

A photovoltaic panel, is, effectively, a static object which produces electric energy from the sunlight. As a consequence, a panel which can follow the sun on his daily change of positions, can clearly increase its power output.

This is the idea of Convert, an Italian based Energy company which has recently established Convert South Africa, its branch company in the African country.

Therefore, Convert has launched the TRJ Tracker KIT, a single axis tracker which allows solar panel’s rotation and so maximizes its energetic efficiency.

The single-axis tracker is based on the movement of photovoltaic modules which follow the North-South axis and automatically tracks the Sun’s East-West movement during the day.

In addition, inside the TJK tracker there is a GPS system that provides the exact position of the sun in real time, to co-ordinate immediately panel’s and sun position. The GPS system also makes sure that the tracker maintains a low pointing error even with variable weather.

In this way, the solar panel becomes like a sunflower, which follows sun and changes position rotating its head. Just as the sunflower is always in front of the sun and perfectly irradiated, even if the angle of its rays constantly changes, similarly the tracker makes that the solar panel rotates according to the sun position, and thus the cells obtains the maximum efficiency with direct irradiation and with a very low energy consumption.

Thus pv panel’s efficiency increases up to 25% more than fixed panels.

Furthermore, if the tracker is installed on a photovoltaic plant, a backtraining system checks and ensure that a string of panels does not shade the other modules.

The TRJ kit is fully compatible with all the most common pv panels on the market, so there is no need to buy the whole system from the company and  it can be installed without additional purchases.

Another advantage of Convert TRJ is that it’s simple to install and ready to use. The mechanical part can effectively be positioned directly on the drive foundation posts by just two technicians and doesn’t requires welding.

The Convert TRJ Tracker Kit is the best way to minimize the over cost of tracker solution with maximum power and value gain.

This fact is important, not only to the economic perspective, but also considering the environmental one. Pv panels’ prodcution is effectively still pollutiong, so it’s mandatory to find new ways to maximize the efficiency of solar systems. And that’s another reason why Convert has decided to make his tracker compatible with all the most common pv panels.