New solar tracking panel buy in Fontana, Salt Lake City, Santa Clarita

Tracking the Sun From Ellicott City

01.01.70

The shortest day of the year is behind us, and from now until the summer solstice, we’ll be seeing more sun every day. That should be good news for the county, which announced the installation of solar panel trackers at the George Howard Building in Ellicott City.

Columbia-based Advanced Technology & Research Corporation developed the technology, which uses a GPS-based controller to direct solar panels toward the sun throughout the day. According to ATR’s website, tracking the sun means panels can generate 30 percent more electricity – or more – than static solar panels.

“We are always looking for ways to generate more renewable energy and to promote local companies and the cutting edge technology they are developing,” County Executive Ken Ulman said in a statement.

“These panels do both those things, and are one of the many ways County government is leading by example when it comes to environmental protection.”

“As a Howard County business, we especially appreciate County Executive Ulman’s partnership to host this first installation of our solar power tracking systems on a government complex,” ATR founder and CEO Jackson Yang said in a statement.

Source: Patch.com

solar tracking panel - News

HYPERSOLA : HyperSolar Successfully Completes Prototype Design of Breakthrough ...

4-traders (press release) - Feb 15, 2011

When successfully commercialized, a HyperSolar concentrator delivering 400% light magnification can reduce the number of solar cells in a solar panel by 75%, thereby dramatically reducing the cost per watt of solar electricity.

Greek isle taps BrightSource for solar

CNET - Jan 20, 2011

It looks like that the ratio of open space to the area of the panel is 4:1 on hte average even adjusting for tracking. This means that the intercepted sunlight of the total area is only 25% and even if we assume that the system converts 36% of

Solar Tracking Makes Use of Industrial Control

Design News - Jan 20, 2011

Schultz says that many users often have multiple embedded PCs deployed in the field to control a couple hundred panels. PXI is a rugged, PC-based platform from National Instruments that offers a high-performance, low-cost deployment solution for solar

UA sells solar to Tucson

Arizona Daily Wildcat - Feb 02, 2011

With a new 1.6-megawatt tracking array, allowing customers to buy blocks of solar energy, the UA houses Tucson Electric Power's largest solar energy source. The Bright Tucson Community Solar Program debuted the community solar panel last month and

When to use a pyranometer vs a reference cell

PennEnergy- Energy News (press release) - Feb 14, 2011

Pyranometers can help determine the location for solar cell installations, and monitor panel performance, among other uses. Reference cells have similar properties to photovoltaics (PV) panels, but even when properly calibrated, will have the same