Foldable solar tracking system, assembly and method for assembly, shipping and installation of the same

A method of installing a solar panel assembly, comprising:

• assembling in a secondary automated process location at least one solar panel assembly, which comprises:
• a spine;
• a plurality of paired brackets connected to said spine, wherein said brackets are positioned on opposite sides of said spine, and wherein at least one of said paired brackets includes wheels to allow rolling movement of said spine;
• an array arm attached to each said bracket, said array arms moveable from a shipping position to a deployed position;
• and
• at least one solar array panel secured to each said array arm;
• moving said array arms to a shipping position;
• loading said solar panel assembly in said shipping position on a truck;
• transporting the truck to a deployment site;
• and
• off-loading said solar panel assembly from said truck.

A method of folding a solar panel assembly for compact shipping, comprising:

• providing a spine with a plurality of paired brackets, wherein each bracket of said paired brackets are positioned on opposite sides of said spine;
• each said bracket having an array arm detachably mounted thereto that carries at least one solar array panel;
• and
• moving said array arms so that each said solar panel faces and is substantially parallel with another solar array panel carried by said array arm attached to said other paired bracket for shipping.

A solar tracking assembly, comprising:

• a spine;
• a plurality of solar array panels extending from both sides of said spine;
• a motor having a slip clutch, said motor connected to said spine for rotation of said spine;
• and
• at least one winglet secured to selected solar array panels, wherein detection of a predetermined differential torque on said plurality of solar array panels causes said slip clutch to allow rotation of said spine to alleviate forces applied to said solar array panels by the differential torque.