Commercialization of a value-engineered photovoltaic tracking system

Author

Shugar, D.S. ; Hickman, Thomas ; Eckert, Pete ; Lepley, Tom

Author_Institution

PowerLight Corp., Berkeley, CA, USA

fYear

1996

fDate

13-17 May 1996

Firstpage

1537

Lastpage

1540

Abstract

Our paper summarizes research and development results to design and commercialize a value-engineered photovoltaic (PV) array tracking system. The PV system, called PolarTracker^TM, was empirically demonstrated at the Solar Test and Research Facility (STAR) of Arizona Public Service Company (APS) by PowerLight corporation and New World Power. Performance data is presented. Value-engineering the PolarTracker ^TM has accelerated the cost-effective implementation of PV in targeted grid-support applications, through reduction in production energy cost and increase in on-peak availability

Keywords

economics; solar cell arrays; solar cells; value engineering; Arizona Public Service Company; New World Power; PV array tracking system; PolarTracker; PowerLight corporation; Solar Test and Research Facility; development; on-peak availability; production energy cost reduction; research; targeted grid-support applications; value-engineered photovoltaic tracking system; Availability; Commercialization; Control systems; Costs; Photovoltaic systems; Production; Research and development; Solar power generation; Steel; Wind speed;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1996., Conference Record of the Twenty Fifth IEEE

Conference_Location

Washington, DC

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3166-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.1996.564430

Filename

564430