A CSU civil engineer has received a U.S. Department of Energy grant to help solar trackers – the structures that enable solar panels to follow the path of the sun – withstand high winds and wind-related natural disasters.
CSU civil and environmental engineering Assistant Professor Yanlin Guo received a $2.3 million award from the DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Office. The three-year collaborative project involves researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the University at Buffalo.
High winds on solar trackers
Single axis solar trackers follow the path of the sun throughout the day to maximize the generation of solar energy and minimize cost. The technology has unsurprisingly become a very popular option for solar farms, yet such trackers are susceptible to damage from high winds during thunderstorms or hurricanes. The impact of damaged solar panels during an already catastrophic natural disaster can include extended power outages, further delaying recovery within the affected communities. Solar trackers may sustain damage even at moderate wind speeds such as 30-50 mph.
Guo saw an opportunity to improve the technology to increase the efficiency and reliability in solar energy production.
Guo predicts that redesigning the shape of the solar trackers will improve performance and be cost-effective. “The aerodynamic performance is very sensitive to the shape; change the shape a little and the performance changes a lot,” said Guo.
Collaboration to advance the science
Guo realized very limited research or public data existed on this issue, so she reached out to Teng Wu at the University at Buffalo who has expertise in aeroelasticity, a concept more commonly applied to aerodynamic stability of bridges. Until the DOE request came along, funding sources for their research proved to be scarce with minimal interest from the solar industry in sharing data on wind damage.
The DOE solicitation called for field deployment of new technologies. Knowing they would need a partner with connections in the solar industry for such a deployment, they reached out to James Elsworth, a researcher from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory who had previously written a report on storm hardening measures for solar energy systems.
“Collaboration makes this work. Without any one of the three parties, the proposal would not have been successful,” said Guo. “Our goal is to advance the science with solutions so that more people can benefit from clean solar energy. We have support from organizations like NREL because they want the solar industry to survive and thrive.”
Beyond the theoretical
Their ultimate goal is to reduce wind damage to solar trackers and improve energy resilience during catastrophes. The team plans to use two solutions: modifying the physical shape of solar trackers and establishing forecasting tools for predicting how the structure will perform under extreme conditions.
Additionally, the team plans to use digital twin simulations to guide emergency responses. This would improve the decision-making capabilities within communities facing a strong wind event, and ideally reduce any damage or resulting power outages.
“It is a unique opportunity to be able to test all of the new technologies in the field,” said Guo. “A lot of times, we do research based on our imagination. We find a problem we think is important and we solve it, but we solve it theoretically. We may not always have the opportunity to test in the field. This project is very unique because we will have a full-scale testbed at the National Wind Technology Center in NREL with world-class instrumentation to prove the new concepts.”
