Rute Basis Techniques says its Rute Suntracker system – designed for utility-scale, high-clearance photo voltaic – may probably cut back metal use by 30%.
From pv magazine USA
Rute Basis Techniques, based in Oregon in 2015, makes a speciality of modular foundations for renewable vitality. However in 2021 it centered its websites above floor, designing the patent-pending Suntracker for high-clearance photo voltaic installations like agrivoltaics.
Agrivoltaics, the observe of co-locating photo voltaic vitality manufacturing with agriculture, has been gaining traction world wide as prime photo voltaic land turns into extra scarce and the advantages of pairing photo voltaic with farmland change into extra apparent. For instance, researchers on the College of Arizona have discovered that photo voltaic arrays enhance crop yield in dry environments by offering shade. Moreover, grazing sheep amongst photo voltaic panels has been used to handle grasses on the web site, performing an agricultural type of O&M. An agrivoltaic array is often raised above 8 toes to permit agriculture to proceed beneath, and that’s the place the Suntracker design is available in.
“Regardless of being useful for the landowner, agrivoltaics has traditionally been a tough promote for the developer,” mentioned Doug Krause, president of Rute Basis Techniques. “Now that now we have a system with enticing economics to all stakeholders, we anticipate dual-use utility scale agrivoltaics to develop exponentially”
The Suntracker system is suspended by cables, fairly than mounted on metal pushed into the bottom, offering what the corporate says is the bottom levelized price of vitality (LCOE) for high-clearance photo voltaic. Rute studies that through the use of cables fairly than metal foundations, metal use is lowered by as a lot as 30%. One other benefit of the cable system is that the land doesn’t need to be disturbed with a view to set up the system, which is a profit within the agricultural trade. It additionally allows the land to be returned to its authentic situation within the occasion that the photo voltaic set up had been to be eliminated.
Rute compares its Suntracker set up to a cable suspension bridge. The cables not solely maintain the system in place, simply as in a suspension bridge, however in addition they use the cables to rotate the panels to trace the solar,. The monitoring programs gives as much as 28% extra electrical energy than fastened panels, the corporate studies. With its decrease price and the extra income from monitoring, Rute says its Suntracker is the primary agrivoltaic system to attain a levelized LCOE aggressive with standard photo voltaic.
Rute acquired a grant from the US Division of Power and Enterprise Oregon to construct a pilot, and the corporate is now constructing its proving floor on the manufacturing innovation middle in Scappoose, Oregon.
