IIT Delhi Researchers Develop High Efficiency, Shadow-Less, Portable Solar PV Towers

New Delhi, Feb 4: What can be considered as a significant scientific breakthrough, a team of researchers at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi have developed high efficiency, shadow-less and auto rotating Solar PV towers for photovoltaic power generation in a given area throughout the day.

The innovation allows the solar panels to be stacked vertically on the structure without the occurrence of shadow by the top solar panels on the bottom ones. An IIT Delhi research team led by Physicist Professor Dr. Dalip Singh Mehta have developed 'non-mechanical' and 'mechanical' tracking solar PV towers with reflection concentration which are viable for all Indian seasons throughout the year. The 'mechanical' tracking Solar PV tower is portable which means that the entire unit can be mounted on a truck, made functional and taken anywhere to generate power.

Speaking to The Hans India, Professor Mehta said that the innovation has scope both in the residential sector and for commercial and agricultural purposes. He said that it took his team five years to develop the innovation and the patent for this design was filed 2 years ago.

Professor Mehta, on the PV tower innovation, explained, "The first achievement is that the top panel layer's shadow will not fall on the one at the bottom. The second achievement being these panels, in the market, have 20 percent efficiency, with output generated maximum being between 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Our non-mechanical tracking, what we call Vertical ABC tower, are oriented towards different directions, from the east side and conventional south-west path. This would give the ability for each tower to pick up reflections at different timing of the day."

The innovation also comes with mirror reflectors which would put some amount of reflection on the mounted solar panels. This would optimize the irradiance on solar panels during the entire day i.e., between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The percentage of increase of solar irradiance onto the solar panels is more than 50 percent thus maintaining 1000 W/m2 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Professor Mehta also added, that depending on the stability factor, the tower can have multiple layers, from minimum two panels to five panels stacked vertically. He also noted that solar panels, from a capacity of 3kW, 4kW or 5kW, can be stacked on these PV towers. Along with Professor Mehta, the other researchers on this innovation, includes, Dr. Mayank Gupta, Mr Virendra Kumar (Department of Physics); Mr Masood Ali (SeNSE) and Mr Sanjay Ambwani (Design Department) were part of the IIT Delhi research team. The innovation has been licensed to Bangalore and Mumbai-based company EP Sunsol Private Limited for commercial installation. The EP Sunsol Team, which did the installation, consisted of Mahadevan R and Dr. Hitesh Mehta.

"The mechanical solar PV tower with reflectors has a low-cost programmable electro-mechanical system to rotate the solar tower horizontally. Single / double towers are mounted in such a mechanism where the whole system with panels and reflectors follows the direction of the Sun. The panels start the day facing East direction and end the day with west direction… The innovative tracking system developed by IIT Delhi does not require any LDR sensors, requires only single axis tracking and consumes very low power drawn by the same Solar Tower," the innovators have said.

As per the researchers and the institution, the tower can cut down spacing constraints by upto 40 percent, as the innovation was built to support Electric Vehicle charging stations. It can also be used on rooftops for high-efficiency solar power generation for independent houses, schools, hospitals, shops, telecom towers, IT sector and more.

Vehicle mounted solar towers with solar tracking for power generation can be utilized for agriculture purposes (Agri-photovoltaics) such as solar water pumping, charging battery for tractors etc.