Solar in Aberdeenshire

[linesrg]

Good Morning,

In another thread I was asked to post pictures of my system.

Basically I have 16off BP380 panels bolted to a Lorentz ETATrack 1500, don't even ask about the economics and yes doesn't a 3m3 concrete lump look attractive??

The whole installation is a DIY job and S&S have accepted it as is and I have been grid connected since July last year. I am looking to expand the current system 100% by erecting another tracker. The control unit output on the first will be used to drive a relay and I'll rig up a seperate 12V supply to drive the linear motors on both.

As you'll probably be aware you don't get a great deal for your £2000 for the Lorentz especially as the majority of the steel is supplied by the purchaser, however now I have all the bits they do supply it is easy enough to re-manufacture them. The linear motor I'll be using is a Jaeger HD 36" 36VDC model.

Currently I'm using 2off Soladin 600's but recently bought a second hand Sunny Boy 2500 which I'll use for both arrays which will be series connected to give circa 575VDC.

I'm aiming to have this all in place for April 1st 2010 to capitalise on the FIT's.

I've made a couple of other posts as to where I'm aiming to go with the whole property and am happy to answer any questions.

[kristen]

Have an Applaud!

[Justme]

Nice.

How do the sums stack up for the tracker?
Most people are of the opinion that spending more money on panels is better for performance.

Or was space really tight?

[dinitro]

Sorry slightly off topic

The tracker seems like the linear motors used by satellite dishes.

On the same theme and remembering a James May (top gear presenter) program... would a satellite parabolic dish lined with reflective foil
and have at the focal point a square of PV be any good?

dinitro

[linesrg]

Justme,

Considered wisdom is that you are better off just buying more panels I'd agree. Once this 'base tracker unit' has been bought though replicating it isn't too expensive (all relative I guess). The main reason for going this route was a limited amount of roof space pointing in anything like the right direction. We have 14 acres of land but the house is wrongly oriented, the water sources not big or fast enough and we're sheltered from the best of the wind.

We could have maybe used the steading roof which is oriented SSW but the general condition is not good and prior to establishing solar panels and all the racking/ mountings etc. we'd need to carry out quite extensive roof repairs as a pre-requisite.

The costs overall were about £7500 I guess. I was caught out by the cost of the concrete - the 3m3 cost us about £420 alone.

I'm not a great fan of the way the current subsidies/ grants work but may go that way for a GSHP and solar water panels if and when we go that way. The solar water panels will be mounted on a galvanised frame attached to the gable end of the property and the GSHP and heat store/ HW tank will be put in a yet to be built shelter the other side of the utilty room wall from the existing condensing/ modulating LPG boiler.

Regards

Richard

[biff]

this is a very impressive setup and its quite helpfull to see how it is all arranged.i recently bought 5 x 165wattx24volt panels and i am in a quandry as to how to set them up without resorting to a tracker.your solar setup is in a sheltered location but we regularly have severe winds and the design and structure of your setup would definatly not survive the winter in donegal.i still have not decided on my own design,the panels will have to be attached to something  heavy and durable which will prevent the wind getting underneath them and hold them stable in force 10,,a tall order.
                        biff

[linesrg]

Biff,

I had the same doubts re yourself re the system's durability although I'm not in as exposed location as you appear to be. As a merchant seafarer I'm all too famililiar with the power of the wind.

Lorentz themselves claim the device meets European standards, you'd need to go and check all the literature available on their site. I've no doubt the tracker would survive but the panels are only secured at 4 points. I wonder what the house insurers would make of a claim for lost or damaged panels?

Regards

Richard

[billi]

Richard well done and i think the modern art installation  looks great and harmonic contrasting the old building

Like medieval times  meets Aliens     

Great

I was caught out by the cost of the concrete - the 3m3 cost us about £420 alone

I would imagine it was costly , did you use your sons (parked on the left ) bulldozer ?  

Lorentz have a good reputation

All the Best Billi

[Outtasight]

As for high winds, does this tracker sense it and park the array in a horizontal position?  I read about one Deger tracker controller that does that from the Brightgreenenergy web site.

[linesrg]

Good Evening,

In answer to the most recent questions no the device doesn't put it itself in a 'safe' position with high winds - it has no way of knowing what the wind is doing.

NO it took a slightly larger bulldozer device then the one shown!! The groundwork was done along with laying a gulley pot and 6" pipe to try and deflect some of the water which pours off the hill behind us. We had the JCB level a patch of land about 3 x 3mtrs in which he laid some hardcore and I installed a fairly crude set of shuttering and hire a 1/2 bag mixer and spent several hours mixing cement and aggregate to fill the 3 x 3 x 0.1mtr hole.

At the same time we had another small trench dug across to the outbuildings to lay a conduit pipe to pass the cables across.

The mould for the 2.1mtr x 0.9mtr block was formed from several sheets of thin plastic held in place with 6 off 2" wide webbing straps.

Faced with mixing 3m3 of concrete I took the easy option as I didn't really fancy shovelling what amounts to some 7 1/2tons of materials in to a mixer for ever and a day!!

Regards

Richard

[Cornish Dragon]

Hi Richard.
I am very interested in your great looking system.
I hope this isn't a too silly question but why is
the concrete block above ground as it doesn't
look as if the panels could touch the ground
even if the block was berried ?
This is even more relevant to me as I live in
Cornwall and the my optimum angle even in
winter won't be too steep.
Also please do you have drawings of your "in house"
designed one as most of the metal work looks
fairly straight forward..
many thanks.....
CD