RETRACK: Industrial research study for the construction of resilient solar trackers.

IDE/2020/000345

Project co-funded by the Government of the Principality of Asturias through IDEPA, the Science, Technology and Innovation Plan (PCTI) 2018-2020 and the European Union through ERDF funds.


Digital Innovation

2020

Due to structural developments in the pursuit of optimisation, the PV tracker structures currently being built are extremely slender. Although the mono-axis design used today is correctly calculated, dynamic failures are beginning to occur in installations around the world. In particular, the type of breakage associated with aeroelastic instabilities, under the effects of moderate wind speeds. Due to the novelty and complexity of this phenomenon, Eurocode and other international standards do not, at present, contain any valid formulation to cover these problematic events. This fact implies a high economic risk when it comes to providing energy security in production. For the correct calculation of this type of structures, a greater and deeper knowledge of aeroelastic phenomena is required, normally complemented with wind tunnel studies by means of a detailed theoretical and experimental study of the parameters involved in this type of instabilities. This is how the RETRACK project came about, the purpose of which includes experimental studies of various models of solar tracker such as those that TSK frequently incorporates in its plants and which are subjected to adverse weather phenomena that must be considered for their correct operation, once at the final site. Likewise, the methodologies of control and monitoring of characteristic plant parameters will be studied, seeking maximum efficiency.