Multiple orientation in trackers with Terrain follower PVSYST 8.0

[Geovera]

Hi PVSYST Team,

My goal is to model trackers with the terrain follower feature, for that I need that each tracker (table) or subtracker depending on the type of TF can be associated to a specific orientation, with the objective that each tracker considers a different POA and thus be possible to quantify the losses by TF (assuming that I would do the electrical calculation at the module layout level).

My specific question Is it possible to make this association of tracker to orientation? and if yes, what is the correct procedure to do it?

Thanks!

 

[Michele Oliosi]

Hi, yes that is technically possible, to associate each tracker to a different orientation. The basic TF losses are then obtained orientation by orientation so that works as well. The module layout will help in terms of shadings. One possibly missing feature is if you have more than two strings in parallel on the same MPPT and these are on more than two orientations, it is not possible to define that properly in the System part. Currently, string-to-string mismatch is possible to evaluate only for two different orientations connected in parallel.

Finally, moving in the territory of custom tracker movement is more complicated. Indeed, you can apply a backtracking algorithm to each tracker movement, but that does not depend on the relative height. At the moment, only the ideal algorithm that avoids shades on a regular array of trackers is applied. Of course, we are working on a solution for custom movement, but that will take several updates before its release.

[Geovera]

Hi Michele, thanks for the answer, I understand that this process of assignment between tracker and orientation is manual for the moment or it can be done with PVsystCLI. looking forward to the next updates!!

Edited Monday at 04:04 PM by Geovera

[Michele Oliosi]

Indeed, the process is only manual for now. At some point we will get a tool to quickly assign orientations.
PVsyst CLI will help with automatizing the "simulation" step, but for now no other steps, so it won't help here.

By the way, what is your case, i.e., do you have more than two orientations in parallel electrically ?