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I have often wondered why rooftop solar does not have some kind of tilting system to aim the panel at the sun more without an expensive and sophisticated tracki
by didgetmaster 4y ago
I have often wondered why rooftop solar does not have some kind of tilting system to aim the panel at the sun more without an expensive and sophisticated tracking system.
You could mount each panel on a swivel that has a spring on one side and a screw drive on the other side. At night when no power is being generated, the spring causes the panel to automatically move so it is pointing at a slight angle (e.g. 15 degrees) to the east. When the sun comes up in the morning and the panel starts generating power, it also activates a very small motor that turns the screw every few minutes to begin a slow tilt toward the west. This continues all day until the sun goes down and the process resets.
- cedilla 4y agoIt's just not worth it. Panels have become so cheap and productive that you don't need to have them track the sun. A motor and a swivel are already prohibitively expensive. They also introduce a lot of failure modes to a system that is otherwise low-maintenance. It's much, much, much cheaper to just plonk down a few extra square meters of panels instead.