Let’s speak some truth. The solar mounting market is oversaturated. One could name 50 manufacturers without issue, and more pop up every year. What separates the wannabes from those with a dedicated customer-base is often company longevity and bankability. In the young solar industry, it means something to be a trusted veteran.
The same can be said about solar tracking. Although the tracking market is a little more exclusive, there’s been a recent uptick in emerging players. Now working with literal moving parts, bankability and longevity are just as important in tracking. On behalf of Solar Power World, I recently traveled to Albuquerque to see the innovations happening at 29-year-old Array Technologies and learn what the tracking manufacturer is doing to stand out in a dense solar crowd.
Innovation never stops
After 29 years as leader of the company, founder Ron Corio passed the torch to new CEO Jim Fusaro, not so Corio could head into retirement, but so he could get back to doing what he does best—coming up with advanced and evolving products.
“I wanted to get back to innovation and design,” Corio said. “That’s what I like to do. It’s in my DNA.”
Fusaro will focus on continuing to refine the company’s processes so it can grow internationally. After entering the Australian market less than two years ago, Array Technologies has already been awarded more than 1 GW of projects and has a 55% market share in the country (according to GTM Research). Array is being selective about what additional markets make the most sense.
Corio is now looking at the next innovative avenues for the company, including the future of incorporating bifacial modules and energy storage systems.
“Frequency control is already being implemented in solar power plants and I think that will happen [everywhere] in relatively short order,” he said. “Storage is just an economic equation at this point. Storage is like solar five or six years ago.”
More pre-assembly = faster installs
Smaller, more manageable parts and pieces are manufactured and assembled at Array Technologies’ Albuquerque facility, including electronics, mounting brackets and gear systems. The company tries to assemble as much as possible in-house to make field installation easy. Bolts, washers and nuts are assembled as one unit so installers don’t have to sort through boxes of parts to find what fits together. The company uses BobTail nuts/fasteners that won’t come loose once tightened, which brings maintenance down to zero. The clamp that secures crystalline silicon modules to the tracker uses just one bolt and one nut, also pre-assembled in Albuquerque.
Corio said it may cost more to hire workers to do so much pre-assembly, but the benefits to the field installers is what keeps them coming back for more product.
“We try to assemble the system to the highest degree to make it easy on the customer,” Corio said. “Maximum assembly for minimum field work.”
Taking the guesswork out of safe stowing levels
A true marker of a successful tracking system is how it functions in extreme weather. How quickly can it stow to a safe position in intense winds? What if the motors lose power and can’t stow the system?
Array Technologies dismisses these two concerns by using a passive stow method—essentially not stowing at all. Although the company operates with a centralized tracking system (using one motor to move multiple rows through a linked drive shaft), each row has its own dampener/clutch and can effectively work on its own. If large snow banks or sand piles prevent one row from fully rotating, the entire system linked through that one motor will not halt operation. The clutch on that affected row will stop its rotation while the rest of the rows continue moving with the motor.
The clutch works the same in high winds. Rather than taking time to position the rows to 0°, the rows can “ride the wave” of the winds. This helps prevent twisting on the torque tubes because the panels can move freely at pre-set torque levels. And if the weather cuts out power and the motor can’t move the panel rows to safe levels—no worries, because the Array Technologies trackers don’t need to actively stow.
Fully understanding how bifacial works with trackers
There’s no question that bifacial modules work best with tracking systems. A tracking system exposes the backside of a bifacial module better than a fixed-system can. Bifacial modules have been around for a while, but now that they’re entering the mainstream, Corio said its time to get accurate testing done to produce the best coupling of technologies.
“Solar today has become such a precision sport,” he said. “Whenever you throw a new technology that is not easily defined or site specific, it’s hard to get that precision. You have to know location nuances to accurately forecast bifacial [panels].”
Array Technologies is working with a national laboratory to fully test its systems with bifacial modules. Rather than using two modules in portrait-mode positioned on either side of the central torque tube, Array is keeping its one-portrait system, even though the torque tube will cast shade on the back of the bifacial module. Two-portrait systems would require more material, more engineering and more installation effort. The company has found the ideal offset is between 2.7 and 5.5 in. above the torque tube, because mounting further above the torque tube would have structural implications. The generation gain from 2.7 in. to 5.5 in. is only 0.65%, but even small percentages can make a big difference in selling projects on performance.
Array is also looking at how backtracking changes with bifacial modules and if the traditional tracking algorithm gets the most energy gains through both side of the modules. Corio said partnering with the national lab provides more validation for the company’s testing. Array plans to have more concrete conclusions about bifacial technology and tracking systems by the end of the year.
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