With the development of society, traditional energy sources are increasingly unable to meet the demands of accelerating urbanization. As the gap between supply and demand continues to widen, developing renewable energy is becoming more and more important. In addition, the turmoil caused by the Russia-Ukraine crisis has increased the desire of countries and companies to improve energy security and build a more efficient and sustainable energy industry. As a leading green energy source, solar photovoltaic(PV) is thriving under such a driving force.
Photovoltaic Tracking Systems Help to Increase Power Generation
When the sun shines vertically on the PV panels, the PV array receives the greatest amount of solar radiation and its power production is greatest. However, the direction and intensity of the sunlight changes constantly over time but most conventional PV panels are fixed and cannot change with the sun’s position.
How can the angle of the photovoltaic panels be changed with the angle of the light to increase the conversion rate? The solar photovoltaic tracking systems(tracker) is the answer. The solar tracking system uses an active tracking control scheme to control the orientation of the PV array so that the panels receive as much vertical sunlight as possible.
There are currently two main types of automatic solar PV tracking systems on the market: single-axis tracking and dual-axis tracking. Single-axis tracking systems, where there is only one axis of rotation to change the angle of the panels, can increase power output by 15-35%. Similarly, dual-axis tracking systems have two degrees of freedom that act as axes of rotation. Theoretically, it can achieve zero angle of incidence of sunlight. It can increase power generation by 35-43%.
Single-axis tracking system and dual-axis tracking system have their own advantages. The appropriate tracking system should be selected in accordance with the latitude, terrain, environment, and cost budget.
MORNSUN Self-powered Solutions for Solar PV Tracking System
Conventional solar trackers are generally designed to draw power from a battery pack. This battery-powered solution requires the PV high voltage bus voltage to be converted to grid voltage (e.g. 220VAC or 110VAC) or taken directly from the grid and then converted to 24VDC or 48VDC to charge the batteries. This makes wiring cumbersome and the whole system difficult to install and maintain, and there is the problem of wasted power. Another design solution is to use an additional small PV panel to power the tracking system. Because of the small PV panel, the PV panel area of the power generation system cannot be maximized and the total power generation is limited.
Therefore, based on the disadvantages of conventional solar trackers, current designers tend to design the trackers to draw power from the PV high voltage bus. The PV high voltage bus typically ranges from 200-1000VDC, some even up to 1500VDC. This requires a power supply that not only has a very wide input range to cover the bus voltage range, but also has a very high insulation voltage. The harsh and variable operating environments (from high desert plateaus to densely populated residential areas) require power supplies that are highly adaptable to high and low temperatures and suitable for high altitude applications. In addition, the power supply must meet a number of specifications such as safety design, input reverse protection, etc.
Working in the PV industry for more than 10 years, MORNSUN has developed 5-350W PV power supplies with a series of leading original patented technologies, fully meeting the power supply needs of various power levels of PV applications. Among them, PV350 series is the masterpiece of PV power supply. It features with high isolation voltage up to 4000VAC, operating altitude up to 5000m, and ultra-wide operating temperature range from -40℃to+85℃. More importantly, the PV350’s ultra-wide input voltage range of 300-1500VDC allows PV tracking systems to be designed to draw power directly from the PV high-voltage bus. This means that no additional power wires are required, simplifying the power design of the tracking system and thus reducing the installation and maintenance difficulties of the system. It also means that there is no need to install additional PV panels to power the tracking system, thus maximizing the area of PV panels that can be used for power generation, thereby increasing the power output of the PV plant and improving economic efficiency. With up to 350W of power, a single tracker can drive more panels, reducing the number of trackers required per MW. It is estimated that this can help to reduce the cost of the overall PV tracking system by up to approximately 30%.
Conclusion
In all aspects of the solar power industry, from PV trackers, PV cleaning robots, combiner boxes, inverters to energy storage systems（ESS）, MORNSUN can provide a wide range of power supply modules such as enclosed AC/DC power supplies, AC/DC converters and DC/DC converters, RS485/CAN transceivers and more, offering customers with one-stop power solutions to simplify their design and shorten their system development and time-to-market.
