Are you tracking or stowing? – A financial analysis of stow strategies
Developers shopping for single-axis trackers are likely to look for a model that can withstand very high wind loads. But these reasonable safety concerns should be considered with the project’s economics in mind, as our initiative partner Arctech showed in a pv magazine Webinar in December 2021. One of trackers’ most important wind mitigation strategies is its safe stow position. In this position, the modules are tilted into a favorable position to maintain the structure’s safety. But while the system is tilted to protect the structure from wind damage, there is no tracking, which reduces yield and thus revenues.
Current large format PV modules trackers already move into stow at lower wind speed thresholds, which means they can be in stow very often, defeating the purpose a tracker is designed for. Arctech’s solution to the problem: raising the wind speed threshold that triggers stow position. The economic effects of this are profound; we heard from the manufacturer’s, global director of engineering and R&D, Pedro Magalhães in December.
In this pv magazine Webinar, we will also welcome César Hidalgo López a principal engineer and tracker expert from DNV to the stage. DNV has reviewed the methodology that Arctech has used to derive the energy yield for the different scenarios considered and has provided feedback on how Arctech can refine its methodology in the future.
pv magazine Webinar content:
- Stow strategy / Wind mitigation strategy of Arctech
- Economic analysis
- DNV acting as an independent engineering firm
- Analysis of the economic model
- Design improvements
- Q&A
Questions can be submitted beforehand or during the webinar through a chat window. Marian Willuhn from pv magazine will be the moderator of this webinar.
Registration for this pv magazine Webinar is free of charge.
