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US 12,158,289 B2Granted
Sensing and feedback for row on sun tracking method and system
AssigneeNextracker LLC
InventorsYu Dong Ma, Yang Liu, Francesco Borrelli, Allan Daly, Ricardo Delgado-Nanez, Alexander W. Au
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A solar tracker system comprising a plurality of on sun trackers and a plurality of off sun tracker. Each tracker is selectively adjusted to achieve a desired power output of the solar power plant system in an example.
Claims20
A solar power plant comprising:
- a solar tracker supporting a plurality of solar modules;
- a drive device coupled to the solar tracker and configured to rotate the solar tracker about an axis;
- a power strip supported by the solar tracker and configured to power the drive device;
- and
- a controller in communication with a memory, the memory storing instructions that when executed by the controller cause the controller to:
- determine a solar tracker target angle based on a topography of the solar power plant;
- and
- output a signal to the drive device to rotate the solar tracker to the solar tracker target angle.
5 more elements
A solar power plant comprising:
- a solar tracker supporting a plurality of solar modules;
- a drive device coupled to the solar tracker and configured to rotate the solar tracker about an axis;
- a power source supported by the solar tracker and configured to power the drive device;
- a tracker controller coupled to the solar tracker and in communication with the drive device and a power strip;
- an irradiance sensor configured to measure local irradiance;
- and
- a capture control module comprising:
- an input coupled to an irradiance sensor;
- an output coupled to the tracker controller;
- a look-up table including historical information correlating angles of the solar tracker and energy output of the solar power plant for a given irradiance;
- and
- an angle adjustment module configured to generate an angle adjustment or gain factor by processing information from the look-up table;
- wherein
- the capture control module is configured to output the angle adjustment or gain factor to the tracker controller to control the angle of the solar tracker.
11 more elements
A solar power plant system, the system comprising:
- a plurality of solar trackers, each of the solar trackers including a plurality of solar modules;
- a tracker controller coupled to each solar tracker;
- at least one drive device coupled to each of the solar trackers;
- a solar power strip coupled to each solar tracker and configured to supply power to the tracker controller and the at least one drive device;
- an irradiance sensor configured to capture local weather information;
- a main controller in communication with each of the tracker controllers, each of the solar power strips, and the irradiance sensor, the main controller configured to:
- gather shading information using the solar power strip;
- receive local weather information from the irradiance sensor;
- and
- adjust the angles of the plurality of solar trackers using their respective tracker controllers based on the shading information and the local weather information.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.