Excellent results for ADES solar tracker in Australia

May 3, 2011

The ADES solar tracker has been shown to be the installation with the greatest normalised production relative to installed power, out of all of the installations in the “Dessert Knowledge Australia Solar Centre” (DKASC).

This platform consists of a total of 27 selected photovoltaic installations, using different technologies from different manufacturers. The plants include fixed installations using thin-film technology or amorphous, polycrystalline or monocrystalline silicon, concentrator installations and single-axis and two-axis tracking installations.

The ADES tracker was the last installation to start up, in March 2011, so it is already possible to establish comparisons between the different technologies installed there, since the DKASC provides on-line production data for each installation.

Throughout April, the ADES tracker has registered an average normalised daily production of 7.9 kWh/kW (equivalent to 237 hours of operation), greater than the production of any other installation in the centre. The normalised production of the ADES tracker is more than 4% greater than the average of the other two-axis trackers and more than 17% greater than that of the single-axis tracker.

With respect to the fixed installations, the advantage of the ADES tracker in April was over 35%, and it even took a 5.5% lead compared to the concentrator installations.

Graphical results from the platform: