Circadian Solar ‘s Tracker to Support Research at University of Lisbon
Circadian Solar has established a new test facility for its CPV solar energy system at the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Lisbon. This takes advantage both of the high direct normal solar insolation (DNI) in this part of Portugal and of the expertise of the established solar energy research group at the University of Lisbon, led by António Vallêra.
The system installed is a 5 square meter tracker, a sub-structure of Circadian Solar's 30 m2 system (CS30) that is at the heart of its product line. Allowing easy access to the chassis, the research tracker enables rapid changes of development modules, while providing the high (less than 0.4°) tracking accuracy of the standard product.
Ethernet access is provided both for remote control of the tracker from Circadian's UK headquarters and for transmission of data for performance monitoring and immediate analysis.
António Vallêra remarked, "We are all looking forward to learning from the data that the system is already collecting. Furthermore, we are delighted to form this new cooperation with Circadian Solar to assist the company in driving its innovative designs through to market applications."
Geoffrey Duggan, Research and Development Director of Circadian Solar commented: "Our research tracker at the University of Lisbon is an important test facility, which will greatly enhance our development of improved modules and thin film, III-V solar cells that are under development via our joint venture, tf2 devices. Lisbon is easily accessible from the UK, and we are delighted to form this cooperative programme with Prof António Vallêra and his team. It is notable that within days of our engineers arriving on site, the tracker was assembled, installed and commissioned, and a record performance on a new module design was recorded and transmitted to our headquarters."
