Comparison of flat single-axis site leveling – earthwork balance plans

Background of the problem The length of the horizontal tracker can exceed 100 meters, and even slight terrain undulations can cause excessive height differences in the north-south direction of the tracker; this can result in shadow obstruction and prevent the cleaning robot from moving. For this reason, adjustments are generally needed to the racks to ensure that the height difference between adjacent racks in the north and south is within the Setting range (typically around 0.3 meters). However, the adjustable range of the rack Pile is generally only around 0.3 meters, which inevitably results in Pile lengths that do not meet the requirements. Therefore, it is generally necessary to level the site. The earthwork volumes vary significantly among different site leveling schemes. For details, please refer to "Comparison of Different Site Leveling Schemes for Horizontal N-S Axis Racks". The site leveling scheme discussed in this article does not consider earthwork…

Discussion on Array Layout in Narrow and Long Ridge Areas

For photovoltaic projects in complex terrain, many of the feasible areas for layout are often the narrow strips near mountain ridges, as illustrated in the figure below: 1. Create zones In such a long and narrow Layout area, if the southern slope and the northern slope are each divided into Layout areas, that is, divided into two Layout areas, there may be three problems: Therefore, it is recommended to divide it into a layout area, as shown in the above figure. 2. Standard layout The conventional layout involves arranging by row, with each array following a specific gap control. This may result in arrays spanning ridges, as illustrated in the figure below (dark blue arrays): This brings two problems: 3. Control the Max. pile height difference Candela3D software supports the control of the maximum pile length difference for individual arrays. When the pile length difference at the array's location exceeds…

Comparison of different leveling schemes for horizontal tracker racks

1. Problem background The length of the horizontal tracker can exceed 100 meters, and even slight terrain undulations can cause excessive height differences in the north-south direction of the tracker; this can result in shadow obstruction and prevent the cleaning robot from moving. For this reason, adjustments need to be made to the racks to ensure that the height difference between adjacent racks in the north and south is within the Setting range (typically around 0.3 meters). At the same time, the adjustable range of the rack Pile is generally only around 0.3 meters, which inevitably means that the length of some Piles may not meet the requirements. Therefore, it is generally necessary to level the site. This article intends to compare the site leveling quantities of the following three site leveling schemes: Site leveling plan 1: only adjust the height of the rack above ground Site leveling plan 2:…

Crossing hills and avoiding potholes – optimizing array layout by controlling the difference in pile length of the array

In each layout area of a complex terrain project, there are inevitably a small number of prominent hills, pits, and steep slopes, which are time-consuming and laborious to identify and adjust manually. The new version of Candela3D introduces a "Maximum Pile Position Height Difference" parameter in the array layout interface, allowing users to automatically avoid these areas and select short arrays for filling based on the available space. 1. Prevent the layout of arrays across hillocks 2. Prevent arrays from being arranged across pits 3. Prevent arrays from being arranged across steep ridges This function employs automatic step-by-step avoidance and automatically fills appropriate arrays; compared to non-automatic avoidance, where screening is done through pile length differences after arrangement is complete, it saves time and effort, and the arrangement capacity is larger and more reasonable.

Is the production slightly higher when arranged following the slope compared to the normal arrangement?

The author received a consultation: for a project in Guangxi, the yield (referring to the yield per kilowatt, the same below) of electricity generated by following the slope is surprisingly slightly higher than that when arranged directly facing south. After conducting Production calculations for two layout plans using Candela3D and PVsyst software, the Simulate results have verified the correctness of the conclusions. What exactly is the reason for that? The author has conducted an analysis on the actual terrain layout of the project, and the results are as follows: In the table above, the four normals highlighted in red account for nearly 70% of the total. Next, we will calculate the actual tilt and azimuth angles of the array for these four normals, using both due south and downslope arrangements, and employ PVsyst to compute the annual total radiation. It can be observed that for the aforementioned four orientations, when…

The new generation of arrays layout module for complex terrain projects has been launched

The previous issue of "Hill-shading analysis method for complex terrain" addressed the issue of selecting sunshine regions in complex terrains. However, how to arrange arrays as much as possible within a limited area while ensuring maximum production is a highly complex problem. We cannot simply consider this issue in terms of the front row not blocking the back row during a certain period of time (although this is a conventional approach, the result is insufficient land utilization and the plan is not economical). We need to consider many issues, such as: 1) Partial arrays are allowed to be obscured, allowing for a more compact array layout; 2) If some scattered arrays block the back row, even if they are not obscured by the front row, deleting them can make the arrangement of the back row more tidy; 3) Mutual obstruction and sequence of layout between adjacent areas (such as front…

Next-generation Hill-shading analysis method for complex terrain

For projects with complex terrain, the most crucial step when selecting an available area is to find areas that meet the sunlight conditions. The conventional method for sunshine filtering typically follows the principle of not being blocked by other mountains from 9 am to 3 pm throughout the year. When the arrangement capacity is insufficient, the time range will be shortened. There are the following issues with this analysis method: 1. It can only conduct preliminary quantitative analysis of direct radiation, but cannot analyze the scattering and reflection losses caused by mountain obstruction; 2. For complex terrain, the sunshine periods of the mountains are not symmetrical, making it difficult to handle; 3. It is not possible to Analyze the occlusion loss outside the specified time period. The new generation of Hill-shading analysis method directly targets the ultimate goal of Hill-shading analysis, which is to select the areas that receive the…

Discussion on the East-West Spacing of Photovoltaic Arrays in Mountainous Areas

The spacing between PV arrays in the E-W Direction, as the name suggests, is as shown in the figure below. It seems that there is no room for discussion, so it is often skipped. However, the actual layout process of a project in Complex terrain is not as straightforward as it seems. This is mainly due to the following two reasons: 1)The arrays are arranged according to the terrain, and as the length and width of the array's projection change, the shape of the Parallelogram also changes; 2)Traditional drawing still treats arrays as unchanging rectangles for layout. For the above item 1), to control the actual East-west spacing to a set value (such as 0.5 meters), it can be achieved through a step-by-step method. This is actually not difficult. Regarding the aforementioned point 2), it is actually the reason that complicates the issue. From a two-dimensional projection, the actual arrays…