PV modules always perfectly aligned with the sun

Optimising balcony power plants – automatically aligned with the position of the sun?

Supplying yourself with self-generated solar power, for example through a balcony power plant, is becoming ever more relevant – economically too. Together with interested people, I would like to start a project for home use.

Having photovoltaic systems automatically aligned optimally with the sun all day is, in principle, old hat technically. In many industrial PV systems, single- or dual-axis mechanisms have long been used to increase yield (see, for example, here (German)). But that is the industrial sector.

What about home use? What about one or two modules that just about fit on a garage, a flat roof or “free-standing” in the garden? The market tempts us with balcony power plants of 2–4 PV modules hanging vertically on the railing. Certainly that is easy to implement, but probably far from optimal in terms of yield.

I would like to try, together with interested people in a small group, to build a two-axis tracker for single or double modules. In principle, I imagine it as “simple”:

• base plate for roof or lawn mounting
• aluminium profiles for fixing different module types
• hydraulic rams or roof window motors for vertical lift
• worm gear or similar for the horizontal axis
• weather resistance and wind stability
• battery-powered control unit with inverter for 230 V, capable of island operation – plug-and-play

This is my plan:

Anyone who has or sees a sensible approach to a solution – perhaps has even “tinkered” with something similar for themselves – is warmly invited to contact me. Single or double modules could thus support self-consumption and, in an emergency, also carry a certain base load.

I am looking for (hobby) designers with heart, interested electricians, metalworkers and mechatronics technicians who are motivated to work together in a small group.

GAIA provides the infrastructure for the project (video server for communication, shared file storage etc.) and offers subsidies for material costs to an extent to be agreed.

It would be nice to make the solution available to everyone interested as a kit on the GAIA marketplace in the end. True to the motto “By us. For us.” Let’s go …

Electrifying greetings from the Tulln region (Austria), Reinhard Reiser, master electrician, homeowner and family man

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