PVTIME – On January 20, Arctech Solar (stock code: 688408) officially released its “New Generation Artificial Intelligence Photovoltaic Tracking Solution White Paper” (hereinafter referred to as “White Paper”).
At the global cloud launch of Arctech Solar’s “White Paper”, Mr. Shitao Wang, CTO of Arctech Solar, gave an in-depth interpretation of the “White Paper”. According to his introduction, proven through Arctech Solar’s field verification and simulations, this new solution can help photovoltaic power plants obtain up to 7% additional revenue. During the launch event, industry leaders from module and inverter manufacturers, EPC and third-party auditing and certification agencies also conducted in-depth discussions on how artificial intelligence tracking can be incorporated with the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain to jointly promote the LCOE reduction of power stations.
Renowned tracking technology made even better with AI
Increasing the comprehensive income of power stations and continuously pursuing lower levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of photovoltaic power generation has become the ultimate goal for all links of the industry. As an intelligent control technology, photovoltaic tracking technology can drive the modules to always obtain the best power generation angle, thereby greatly increasing the overall power generation capacity of the power station. It has now become the trump card for power station LCOE reductions worldwide.
Conventional tracker control generally maximizes the direct solar radiation received by the front side of the photovoltaic module and is only applicable to projects with specific conditions such as monofacial modules, sunny days, flat ground, and other specific conditions. However, this simple strategy ignores the impact of weather and terrain on solar radiation and the different spectral absorption characteristics of modules. With this strategy, it is often difficult to achieve substantial increases in power generation in actual photovoltaic projects, and in some cases, can even produce negative effects.
As one of the world’s leading companies in the photovoltaic industry that first proposed artificial intelligence photovoltaic tracking solutions, Arctech Solar’s new generation of artificial intelligence photovoltaic tracking solutions are not only perfectly adapted for mono/bifacial modules, but are also adapted for the various weather, terrain, and geomorphic conditions of actual projects.
The safety and additional power generation of a power station throughout its entire life cycle are supported by four major strategies
It is understood that Arctech Solar’s new generation artificial intelligence photovoltaic tracking solution has four core control strategies that can easily cope with all kinds of terrain, weather, and geomorphic conditions in the real power station environment, which will bring substantial increases in power generation. Wang Shitao said, “The relevant data in the “White Paper” are all derived from Arctech Solar’s simulation calculations and empirical power generation data. The industry’s third-party audit and certification agency DNV GL has evaluated and appraised the accuracy and validity of the data in the “White Paper”. TUV Rheinland, TUV SUD, and China General Certification have also approved of the results in DNV GL’s assessment report.”
- Tracking control in real terrain
In order to solve the morning and evening power loss associated with traditional inverse tracking algorithms in the undulating terrains, Arctech Solar has adopted tracking control in real terrain to optimize the reverse tracking algorithm in order to increase the maximum power generation of the entire power station. By modeling tracker distribution for all terrain conditions, the trackers in the array are set to run at different angles, which can reduce shadow occlusion. At the same time, this allows the stations to make full use of the light resources and can increase power generation by 0 ~ 5%.
- Monitor weather data in realtime through the cloud
Arctech Solar’s artificial intelligence photovoltaic tracking solution establishes a meteorological database of the project site through sky cameras, analyzes various weather data, uses neural networks to process meteorological data, trains in real-time, and converts it into useful meteorological information. At the same time, the cloud strategy can also obtain real-time cloud images, then use algorithms to identify the projection area, and assign trackers in different areas the best tracking angle, which can increase power generation by 0.5% to 2%.
- Bifacial modules + trackers
Since the traditional tracking strategy is designed for monofacial module application scenarios, the optimal angle is only set to maximize the radiation on the front of the module, ignoring the back of the module. In order to solve this problem, Arctech Solar has formulated a bifacial tracking strategy for the paring of bifacial modules + trackers and optimized the tracker angle of the bifacial modules. Regardless of the weather, by acquiring the environmental data such as the radiation on the front and back of the modules, the maximum power generation capacity of the bifacial modules can be achieved.
- Feedback control via the sharing of DC combiner box and DC side of string inverter power generation parameters
Arctech Solar’s new generation of artificial intelligence photovoltaic tracking solution uses the realtime IV characteristics of the photovoltaic array as the feedback signal, and uses the DC side parameters shared by the DC combiner box and inverter as the algorithm feedback signal, iterates and optimizes the algorithm, and provides feedback to the entire station. Through analysis of the photovoltaic module/string power generation capacity and irradiator data, optimizations can be made to further improve the plant’s power generation efficiency.
Wang Shitao went on to further reveal the technical development direction of Arctech Solar’s photovoltaic tracking solution. “In the future, Arctech Solar will continue to conduct field verification tests in multiple locations to obtain more actual power generation data under various climate combinations and further refine our control strategies. At the same time, we will also provide customers with tracker-based SCADA (data acquisition and monitoring system) and provide operation and maintenance advice to local/cloud operation and maintenance personnel of power stations. In addition, Arctech Solar will also introduce and incorporate module cleaning robots into our control strategies for photovoltaic tracking, so as to help customers to obtain higher profits while solving the issues associated with power station operation and maintenance.”
Rong Gang, head of Arctech Solar’s marketing center, said, “The release of this White Paper further demonstrates Arctech Solar’s original intent of being “customer-centric and helping customers succeed”. In the era of grid parity, Arctech Solar will continue to focus on reducing LCOE, help customers increase their profits, and assist customers in turning economically infeasible projects into viable projects through technological innovation, so as to ensure the safety and additional generation of customers’ photovoltaic power plants throughout their entire life cycles. The success of our customer success is our success!”
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