Robot-Guided Solar Arrays

摘要

To optimize solar collection for both time of day and season of year, the QBotix Solbot slides along a monorail between pole-mounted photovoltaics, adjusting the tilt of each panel along two axes every 40 minutes. A pair of Solbots can replace up to 400 motors on conventional tracking systems, slashing the cost-per-energy-unit of ground-mounted solar by up to 20 percent. In 2013, the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, California, will install the first 50-kilowatt system, with two bots managing 160 panels.