Error Message: Axis Orientation Don't Match

[sjacobs]

Hello:

Our team is receiving an error in PVsyst that we believe is related to the detailed shading scene that we created for the project, which will not allow us to run the energy production simulation.

For a project that is being built, we have a desire for the shading scene to take into account the different tracker row heights and north-south slopes that are a function of the terrain. To do this we built the shading scene where every tracker row is its own PV Field object. Then for each tracker row we applied an axis tilt to reflect either the north facing or south facing slope that is seen in the field. Lastly, we inputted a height that is based on the average top of pile heights for that specific row. This was completed for every single tracker row in the project.

When it came time to run the simulation we received an error that states that N-S horizontal axis tracking: the axis orientations don't match. Attached for your reference are the source files.

We have not been able to figure out how to resolve this issue and would greatly appreciate any support or guidance that could be offered.

Thanks,

Sam

Baxley Solar PVsyst.zip

[dtarin]

If you are using backtracking, all tracker tables in the shade scene need to be at the same tilt angle. They can have different Z-axis heights, but the tilt must be the same throughout. The software isn't there yet for accommodating trackers on terrain with varying tilt angles while backtracking.

[Angel_V]

Hello,

Out of curiosity, is the software able to handle this type of modeling scenario yet?

[Michele Oliosi]

Hi, yes, with caveats.

Your trackers should all have the same nominal orientation, but they can follow the terrain. An error regarding discrepancies in the orientations may still be shown, but this can be bypassed by changing some tolerances in the advanced parameters. As a result, the reference orientation will be the average of all tracker orientations.

There used to be a limit in the tracker axis orientation RMS deviation from the average to apply the backtracking. This is now mostly gone. However, the backtracking algorithm still moves all trackers similarly, according to the simplest backtracking on flat ground specifications. We do not yet handle independent trackers.