Analysis and study of the potential increase in energy output generated by prototype solar tracking, roof mounted solar panels
Roof mounted solar panels come in form of fixed panels, unable to adjust to sun’s position during day and throughout the year. As an effect, the efficiency of such solution is usually dependent on the roof slope and position of the building in relation to sun’s day arc during seasons. These problems can be bypassed in free standing solar installations by equipping solar panels with solar tracker installations. Thanks to solar tracking, solar panels can be dynamically positioned perpendicular to the sun position and gather energy more efficiently throughout the day. This article presents a possibility of creating a roof mounted solar tracking panel to increase irradiance efficiency. A prototype of solar tracking panel with two axes of movement was designed with an intention of an easy adaptation to being mounted on sloped surfaces of building roofs. A reference stationary panel was used to compare the efficiency of both solutions. A 5-day study was carried out to determine if the proposed solution could provide any benefits. Based on the study, the authors made an attempt to draw a conclusion whether the design could considerably increase the solar energy output to be worth the extra spending associated with solar tracker installation.
Authors: Jacek Harazin and Andrzej Wróbel – Equal contributors
Corresponding author: Jacek Harazin
Competing interests: No competing interests were disclosed.
Grant information: This research was funded by Own Scholarship Fund of the Silesian University of Technology, (grant number: 24/FSW18/0003-03/2019).
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Copyright: © 2022 Harazin J and Wróbel A. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
How to cite: Harazin J and Wróbel A. Analysis and study of the potential increase in energy output generated by prototype solar tracking, roof mounted solar panels [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations]. F1000Research 2022, 9:1381 (https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.27641.2)