Development of seasonally tracked auto-folding reflectors for damage control in V-trough photovoltaic assembly

Design and development of intelligent systems has emerged as a challenging area of research during the last two decades. The present study reports an intelligent system for auto-folding of reflectors in V-trough assembly of photovoltaic panels under strong wind conditions. Signaling was controlled by a wind speed sensor and pre-set wind speed limit, while the system software enabled automatic operation. Given that severe weather conditions such as strong gusts of wind are inevitable over the functional life of a PV-V trough array, auto-folding of the reflectors in this manner would lessen the chances of their damage. Moreover, by folding over the PV array, the latter too would get protected in the process. Thus the development reported herein improves the robustness of the overall unit. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.