I am thinking that the back of panel should be designed to result in elastic, rather than inelastic collisions with the hail. Bob Ammerman RAm Systems ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Rolf" To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2006 4:25 PM Subject: Re: [EE] Solar Array. Tracking Invert the panel. > This assumes that the backside is more impact resistant than the > front. Every PVP I've seen has as little backing as possible because > of weight issues. > But if you beefed up the back with something strong enough to resist > 4" hail, and spaced it from the panel so that impacts weren't coupled > into the fragile cells, then this is a 'doh!' idea. > > Robert > > Robert Ammerman wrote: > >> For the hail: >> >> Don't turn the array vertical, turn it upside down! >> >> Bob Ammerman >> RAm Systems >> >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Howard Winter" >> To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." >> Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2006 7:54 AM >> Subject: Re: [EE] Solar Array Tracking >> >> >> >>>Bob, >>> >>>On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 02:03:59 -0700, Bob Axtell wrote: >>> >>> >>>>I too am beginning to think calculating will work better than anything, >>>>especially if time corrections >>>>can be made by RS232 serial once a day or so. >>> >>>I think it depends on the climate. Where James lives it's clear skies >>>almost every day, so time/date tracking would work fine most of the time. >>> >>>But here in Blighty it's cloudy as often as it's clear, so moving the >>>array when the whole sky is giving the same insolation is wasting energy. >>>In this >>>case you could probably optimise using a time-steered sensor which tracks >>>the Sun, and a matching one on the array. Then you can calculate how >>>much extra energy will be collected by moving the array by comparing >>>readings from the two sensors, and only moving if it's worth it. It's >>>very >>>unlikely that an area of sky away from the Sun will produce more energy >>>than pointing at the Sun, it's a question of whether the extra is worth >>>the >>>energy to move the array from where it is, rather than where it should be >>>for max. energy. >>> >>>Cheers, >>> >>> >>>Howard Winter >>>St.Albans, England >>> >>> >>>-- >>>http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive >>>View/change your membership options at >>>http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist >> >> > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist