Energetica India Magazine May-June 2021

SOLAR POWER Focus is on trackers to achieve lowest LCOE with Bifacial & Monofacial modules 48 energetica INDIA- May-June_2021 Karishma Dagar Regional General Manager, Soltec Globally the market is already rooting for trackers and the mar- ket is predicted to achieve 48 GW by 2027. Considering the increase in installation and material cost trackers seems the more suitable option for Solar plants in India. With proposed duties on modules, increasing cost of labour and Trackers will help developer achieve low capex cost as the number of piec- es will go down. Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore has established that Single-axis trackers offer the lowest LCOE in 90% of the world. Monofacial single-axis tracker plants achieve the sec- ond lowest LCOE. Usually single-axis trackers add 25% to that bifacial gain, compared with fixed systems with Monofacial panels. With module and tracker improvements, solar tracker prices are declining on a dollar cost per watt. Developers can get huge benefits from solar trackers and module innovations, Soltec continues to invest in research and development to adapt with new module innovations. Focus is on Tracking Al- gorithms and Structure design to gain more from less. Soltec’s Teamtrack Backtracking The backtracking algorithm uses NREL sun-position data ver- sus programmed constants of local irregularities to execute energy optimized backtracking position control, avoiding in- ter-row shading in the early and late-day hours due to uneven terrain influences and achieving yield-gain. TUV Rheinland has verified that the algorithm meets the specifications by remod - eling the increased energy gain and analyzing the modeling results. In order to evaluate the robustness of the algorithm at differ- ent locations with different environments TUV Rheinland per - formed the verification for 27 defined scenarios and confirms that Soltec’s TeamTrack algorithm leads to higher annual yield gains in the range between 3.6% and 7.5% in comparison to a standard tracking algorithm (s. Figure 1). Soltec’s Layout Engineering and Structure Design Soltec layout design and structure innovations ensure maxi- mum energy gains from the PV plant. Emphasis is on getting the most optimal pitch, design adaptations to avoid shadows and keeping the modules cooler for maximum efficiency. Pitch and GCR Pitch is a determining factor in bifacial module generation. Analyzing the module cooling effect in a market like India where summer temperature goes to 50 degrees in many parts can definitely help developers in gaining the lowest LCOE with best tracking system design and module com - bination.