Techno-economic analysis of solar tracking systems in South Africa

This work presents a techno-economic analysis of the solar tracking system in South Africa. For this purpose, the costs as well as amount of energy produced from 4 different solar tracking configurations have been analysed under three different scenarios (1kWp system, 1MWp system, system mounted on 1hectar of land area). The results reveal that for the single as well as for the two axis system, there is an additional gain of energy of about 33% and 37% respectively compared to the static system. However if 1hectar land area is considered and for the same PV panel size, the single as well as for the two axis system can only produce 15.44% and 22.28% of the amount of power generated the static system; this is due to the specific number of modules that can be erected on the given area. From the experiment results obtained, it can be concluded that tracking systems are not always cost effective compared to the static system. Therefore the use of each tracking system should be carefully analysed to assess if the acquired gain in energy prevails the general disadvantages of the tracking systems. (c) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.