Does anyone know the price of a fixed photovoltaic system versus a movable system?

Question

Dear my friend,

I live in Ohio and go to a High School. I am currently doing a science fair project on solar energy. I am comparing a stationary solar cell system to a one axis tracking system. I am wondering if anyone would be able to give me a price quote of a fixed solar system and a movable one. Your help would be much appreciated.

I have already sent e-mail to three different “solar” companies. As of now, none have returned. If you answer, and want the more details of my project feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,
Zubacat

Answer 1

Im not sure what size your really need, but if you only need one panel you can go to Home Depot they sell it by panel.. at least $450.00 each panel 3 x 5... or yet search the internet Im sure you can talk to someone for a price of a panel.. the whole system cost around $25,000.00 and I dont think they will waste their time if you are only asking for a panel, you have to go to their shop.

Answer 2

The tracking system increases the installed cost by the manufactured cost of whatever tracking mechanism you bolt the panels to and mount to a base. This is difficult enough to do with all-weather reliability that I do not think anyone is doing it on a general commercial basis. The Australians are building a powerplant engineered on the belief that steerable concentrator mirrors coupled with high-efficiency photovoltaics is a cost-effective way to go for municipal-size installations. There should be some cost estimates in their literature that will help you.

Answer 3

If you can change your project, it might be good idea to consider flat systems vs concentrator systems that use mirrors to gather light from various directions. You can include one axis following and might make a servo based system with small amounts of cells to do some actual research. Mounting cells flat and keeping them weather tight is almost trivial compared to mounting them on a frame, mounting the frame on a pivot, motorizing the frame, adding a sensor and control to track the sun (consider a slit in a cylinder that turns with the frame with one or more photocells inside to locate the sun) and keeping the whole thing weather tight and wind resistant adds a lot to the cost.