Anaheim Solar One plans to develop a 3-MW PV solar project on vacant land in Anaheim Hills, California using Mechatron Solar‘s unique dual-axis tracker solution. The site is zoned as “Open Space” and has rolling hills and featureless topography suitable for solar development. Anaheim Solar One has requested a Conditional Use Permit for the site.
Each dual-axis solar unit will be mounted on a single mast, minimizing the disturbance of land area under the solar panels and allows for the co-existence of agriculture or grazing opportunities. The patented dual-axis tracker design provides greater energy harvest from the sun, compared to all other solar panel orientations on the market.
The site is very hilly and does not provide adequate footing for homes or commercial buildings, but with mounting foundations like Mechatron’s, the topography is suitable for solar development with minimal clearing and grading. Project operations will typically be unattended with routine maintenance and washing twice a year. The project has been designed to mitigate issues with the flora and fauna of the area while silently providing clean power to the region.
The project will be located at the intersection of Cannon Street and Via Escola Drive, a site historically used as a recreation space for riding bikes and hiking. Once construction is completed, Anaheim Solar One intends to plant hundreds of fast-growing trees, providing both an aesthetic and practical purpose by creating a park-like setting and eventually blocking sight of the array from most of the project from neighborhoods downhill from the site.
The project will provide the community a park-like setting with hundreds of trees, trails and benches gated off from the electrical components of the project that will be a benefit to the health and safety of the community.
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Solarman says
I understand their purpose and yet most dual tracking installations I’ve seen do not track like they should, specifically on cloudy days. The more components, the less reliable. One of the guys who installed my first solar PV system on the roof of my house. He had been installing some larger solar PV arrays in Military bases for resiliency since the 1990’s. One such installation had dual tracking and the tracking motors kept going out during the summer months. So, his fix was take the solar PV panels off of the trackers, orient south on ground mounts and add 20% more panels to make up for the tracking. Suddenly this became a robust system, where a failure plagued system once stood. With the cost of panels now, even if you have to install the array fixed, you can afford enough panels to make up for not having this “rotating mass” to deal with.