Combined mechanical and electrical control of solar trackers in (C)PV power Plants

The major idea pointed out in this paper concerns the combination of a photovoltaic (PV) grid-feeding inverter with a motor control unit for two-axis solar trackers. The integration of a PV or concentrating PV (CPV) two-axis tracker position control unit, i.e. power electronics to supply the drives as well as sun tracking algorithms, into a specially designed grid-feeding inverter turns it into a ldquoTracking Inverterrdquo. This tracking inverter allows plenty of technical and financial advantages and represents a key component for large scale CPV or tracked PV power plants. Indeed, (C)PV power plants based on tracking inverters are not only easier to design and built up but also more flexible, more reliable and foremost much more cost effective than others.