Super Cool Phase Change Solar Tracker - No Power Needed!!
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- čas přidán 15. 06. 2020
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Are solar trackers coming back?!? The cost of solar trackers has turned me away in the past, but this solar tracker by Pursuit Solar caught my attention at SPI last year and I just had to try it out. I was especially intrigued as a mechanical engineer because this is a fully mechanical, self-powered solar tracker that requires no electricity! In this video I share my experience with this tracker and weigh the pros and cons of using trackers.
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Pretty clever. My system uses a dog pen surrounding the tracker. In the pen I have a strong pitbull that prefers to rest in the shade of the solar panel. When the sun moves, the pitbull moves to the new shadow position and in moving he pulls a short cable attached to the tracker. At dusk the automatic feeder drops food in his bucket and when he moves to the feed bucket he pulls the tracker back to the morning position. One problem is that everything goes haywire when the mailman arrives. Another problem is my system only works in the hot summer, so we move to Brazil in late October.
🤣
Good one 😂
bruh :D
lol - good one
So good, that I had to try if this would actually work. It kind of did, but the weight of the panels was a bit too much to my Chihuahua.
@@halko1 Maybe you could find a cooperative mailman to inspire your Chihuahua.
I really didn’t understand how this worked, sorry. I can understand a wax being heated and expanding a piston, but I didn’t follow how that allows this to track the sun, or where the blocks come into it. You said the blocks were to demonstrate the strength of the system, but then at another point implied the blocks were needed to move the panel. Just didn’t make any sense to me!
Agreed
He didn't give an explanation. Very disappointing.
maybe we need take a 3 day class to understand this kind of technology 🧓
Not being an engineer but using my eyeballs I think I figured it out. That cable from the blocks is wrapped around the pole. When the wax heats up and builds pressure it rotates the device, which lifts the blocks. Now my assumption is since this is one panel and not 18 as he claims it can handle, this is demonstrating that it can in fact move 18 panels.
Basically its useing thermo expanding fluid to move a piston. When the fluid gets hot/cold it expands or contracts. How the sun hits the mirror is where it tracks to/from.
I like the thinking behind this solar tracker. Great to see people exploring alternatives :)
My cousin put a similar tracker together back in the early 80's based on a project in Popular Mechanics magazine from the 70's.. used Freon, two copper pipes one on each side with shades piped to gas shocks that pushed and pulled the cells. Still working to this day. Actually made a mistake on filling the gas amounts and got the unit to re-position itself back eastward and ready for the next day during the night.. But with the gas tubes on each side there is no chance that the sun coming out later will miss the western tube. Very cool to see a new take on this type of setup. Thank you!
Thank you for your comment. I saw one of these in central Australia and have been trying to find info on it for the past 9 months. This sounds exactly like what I saw. Very interesating and seems more resilient than the design in the video.
Installed a freon powered tracker on a bunch of ARCO panels back in 1985. Times (and PV) sure have changed!
Since the 80's I've wanted to build a dual axis tracker but using bi-metal springs beneath magnifying lenses, allowing the Sun's heat on any spring to pull the tracker back inline keeping it centered on the Sun without electricity, motors, etc.
I see some issues with that. A maximum throw of a bi-metal. B repeated imput range C mechanism. I could see a ratcheting system where the heated spring would move one click and repeat along a rack. Wax truly gives a long throw and strong input force to do work.
Thanks for a quick & dirty estimate of a tracker:s advantage. I look forward to seeing more on this.
Hi Scot, I really liked this design, just wondered how the panel will hold in high winds and storms? I'm not worried if the tracker works during such weather, but if the next day I have to go out, buy new solar panels and trackers because all lost to the wind.
The Demolitia is calling for your services over at Offtheranch for the Abandoned Mansion project. Matt needs you!
didnt he sell the mansion
Nope. They decided to keep it. Full renovation and moving Demo Ranch to the mansion. Building garage for Demo Wrench. Several CZcamsrs collaborating with him. Said he's looking for our recommendations for solar and rain water collection, countless of us have called out Engineer775 for this mission.
Haha
A way to tweak this would be to hybrid it. Set up some kind of trip switch/clock that if the shaft does on rotate a certain amount by a given time you could bump it with a stepper motor so it could catch up with the sun.
I love thing's that are mechanical and simple, great video!
In Syria, we made 6 330 w panel base tracker in less than $100. The shape looks beautiful but it costs too much. I can share the forms if you want.
Would be very interested in your design concept
Hi I'm interested in your idea. Please can you share it with us?
It’s great job thank you interesting to share your idea with me
هلا وغلا فيك
Sharker , you claimed you were able to make a six panel tracker for under $100 and that you would be willing to share how you did this. There has been no shortage of interest in your idea. So please, share a link or post on your channel how you went about this.
I remember first seeing heliotropic arrays when I was a little kid in the 70's in the SouthWest.
with engineer in the channel name I would have liked any detail at all on this!!!!!
The blocks are to used to simulate the amount of tension the cable of the tracker can handle. Just imagine that instead of lifting blocks, it's moving panels through tension.
Does it work in the winter time? And if it fails tracking in the morning will it go to a default position to collect a good average amount?.. .
I have two towers with 12 panels each. I am working on a tracking system that uses a timer and simple mechanical gearing attached to a tractor trailer windshield wiper motor. I can have both of my towers move as many times as I like per a day and reset in the evening with just using the timer. Jim
Hola James; no necesitas el timer para retornar tus paneles al este al final del día. Puedes usar relés. Te recomiendo el proyecto de Jesse Tarin en esta plataforma. Sin Arduino ni componentes electrónicos complicados. Saludos.
@@carlosalejos Sí, estoy en el proceso de hacer que mis torres sigan el sol yo mismo. Acabo de poner un video sobre este tema. Para mí, debo volver a la posición "Amanecer", ya que es posible que no tenga energía en la mañana y tenga que restablecer manualmente la torre. Me estoy inclinando hacia un rastreador mecánico en lugar de eléctrico. ¡Revisaré a Jesse Tarin!
Ven a vernos a Chile. Jim
That's brilliant! The day you don't have enough sun, it works even less efficiently. Bri-freaking-lliant.
Very cool shirt. Yes, please keep going on trackers especially ones that are affordable.
that Sulas is neat as heck, but when a solar panel set lasts 20+ years will it still be working correctly. or like you said just a couple more panels and all done. with no moving parts and i do know many wires dont like to be moved constantly. so what is sulas doing to reduce wire fatigue from constant movement at such a arc.
Hi Joshua. Pursuit Solar works with our customers to insure panel wire management restricts cable movement during operation. It's not that hard. Nothing special for panel lead wires, just the home run. And, there's no external power required to turn the Tracker!
This is cool, I always have overcast morings so while this is cool I will be rustrating myself. Gets a lot easier as I get older thanks for sharing
Thanks for the honesty !! One of the many reasons we love this channel!!
What kind of tracker would you recommend for a 10.25ft diameter parabolic water heater?
There's a company in Norwich VT that builds and installs solar Trackers.Its a neat system.
I am glad you posted this. This reminds me of Zomeworks in Arizona. They, also, had a passive system for sun tracking. If I recall correctly, it worked great in hot, warm weather.
You are right, E K. Zomeworks also successfully sold passive trackers in the past.
I've been using zomework trackers for past 15 years and they are 99% reliable off grid. My electronic tracker has had complete failures due to corrosion or moisture. Pole mounting and tracking extract and give me the longest power cycle.
cool, like mech trackers too, may b doing a system here n AR soon so look forward to more.
Jake, I'd be happy to provide you with a quote for our 12-Panel Tracker. Best, Eddie. eddie.bugg@pursuitsolar.com
Love it thank you!
That is VERY cool!
Cool idea.Thats the way to think outside the box.
One thing I'm curious about, if I make my own ground mount (I work at a factory and can pay low prices for raw and laser cut parts), would it be worth it to make it so I can adjust the tilt? Like a winter and summer setting.
Absolutely! get the wiring as close as you can to the pivot point, so when you adjust it, you don't strain the cables. If you wanted to , you could create seven incremental "stops" for month combinations (DEC, JAN/NOV, FEB/OCT, MAR/SEP, APRIL/AUG, MAY/JULY, JUN), to really fine tune it. Or, if adjusting it a lot is not to your liking, I'd suggest finding the optimum for JAN/NOV & APR/AUG and use those two. (it'll be less efficient in the peak of summer, but, that's when you'll probably have energy to spare with the extra hours of insolation). best of luck with it! ~Dan
Probably depends where you live and your surroundings. If you live south than change the pitch to the south won't have the same impact as if you live in Minnesota. Also may depend on the the location of trees and their height.
I can get you a season adjustable system for ~12kW of solar for less than 4k
Have they even tested it long enough to determine the life of the seals? At some point I would expect seal wear to allow wax leakage.
Great question, Arthur. We have installations that have been operating for over 6 years. And, hopefully we will begin performance/reliability/durability testing later this year.
Eddie Bugg ... Decades of working with prototype equipment has always made me a little curious. Knowing the predictable lifespan of every component is a plus. It’s amazing how many companies can’t even tell you even though their product has been in production for decades.
That is very cool.
As another mechanical engineer I also think this is really cool. I do Automation though so I would have to use a PLC lol
I understand.
I have one question, if anyone can kindly reply to that. In areas where is a clear difference in temperature of summers and winters like here in Pakistan where the this delta can range between 30-40 degree centigrade, how will this wax respond?. I mean than if we assume that in winters the wax is heated by (X) degree Celsius to achieve (Z) cm displacement but in summers at the same point of time or solar positioning the temperature will be (X+15 degree Celsius). Now if we assume that the wax has linear properties of expansion relative to temperature increase, will the solar tracker lead the positioning of solar panels with reference to Sun?
The idea is interesting, but the fact that it can't catch up when it fails in the morning is a bit of a problem. It fails 10-15% of the time, so it negates your 20% power production improvements. (because at the end of a day you will have lower power than with fixed installation).
Also trackers are not always the best when you don't have enough space. As they require all panels to be unshaded whole day, even as they rotate. That requires bigger spacing between rows or columns. I would say tracking is useful if you have small installation in one row, no trees, and small amount of space. Or if you have a lot of space. In the middle ground, often the fixed installation will be better.
Maybe the profit of the 20% is lost when yo have to reemplace or manintenance electronics and servos.
@@rogerfederer4386 this tracker doesn't use light sensors, clocks, electronics or servos. It is purely mechanical system.
With a larger system it might be useful to split it in two or three. One fixed, one electric tracker and this non electric tracker.
Totally new to me! Thanks!
Thats a pretty cool idea. I wanted to see if there has been any updates but I see that you use a fixed solar panel system now. Did you just need to expand on the number of panels? Do you still use this one? Any update would be great. Thanks
Wonderful video... 👏
What are the components required to make a model of the solar panel tracker?
Very cool
Wonder how well this system would work in the northeast with cold Winters Below freezing For weeks and months. The parabolic is strong in wouldn't have any problem melting the wax with a consistent light source Winter doesn't really offer that. Just curious how well that would do
I am from India, is there any anti solar panel available in market for purchasing ?
Or it is only a concept ?
Some video saying that Anti solar panel can work at night also
Cool,thanks!
Will be come to Australia to install it? I've been wondering if there was a way to make a tracker that worked on physics target than with electronics. Brilliant!
Thanks sweet videos I'm close to Pickens in landrum sc
Pursuit Solar is based in Denver, NC!
Wow. Love it
Easy enough to DIY. This tech has been around for several decades in automatic greenhouse vents, and automatic AC vents. You can pick up these heat activated pistons from large hardware stores.
I like solar but how much more efficant is a solar tracker? Seems like alot more power during the morning and evening.
Well id like the solar to pay itself off faster so is the added cost of trackers worth it? In my mind the faster the panels pay themselves off the faster they start paying forward to the next set of panels.
Cost:benefit analysis between your available land for installing solar panels, how much power you want/need to generate, versus cost of a tracker. If you have the land, my money is on simply installing more static panels. May not be as efficient as a tracker, but it's also one less thing (or actually many less things because you'd need a whole lot of mechanical linkages beyond just the tracking unit itself) that can break.
Furthermore, as he stated in the video, about 5 days out the month the tracker isn't even working due to overcast conditions. So take whatever efficiency the tracker would provide over static panels and then SUBTRACT how much power you're losing over those five days when the panels may not even be facing the sun for 3/4ths of the day.
Final analysis: cool concept from a purely mechanical/engineering perspective. From the perspective of generating electricity from solar panels, it offers no significant advantage over static panels with the added downsides of extra cost, complexity, maintenance, and risk of failure. Solar panels are supposed to make things as foolproof and maintenance free as possible. This does just the opposite.
On 6:20 of the video you said you would be reviewing a cheaper tracker in a couple months. Which tracker is that? Did you do a video on that one? Thanks
I think that maybe the re-surge in trackers is because we have pretty much topped out in efficiency of solar panels and the only way to get more power in a smaller space would be tracking.
I wouldn't count out improvements in efficiency just yet. I think we're on the verge of seeing additional efficiency boosts with the introduction of graphene; now that it's becoming economically viable to produce on large scale. If not for the cells themselves, then at the very least the battery banks those cells feed. Personally I want to install solar, but I'm taking a wait-and-see approach with new graphene developments in the works.
I have to wonder how this would perform in an environment where it can be well below 0 in the winter and well over 100 in the summer
Artic Solar...that will answer your question.
Literally just searched 'phase change hydraulic' thinking of this exact idea, boom, someone made it. Very nice.
I now realize after you were talking about weather conditions that, duh, of course the parabolic would be heavily dependent with a large delta of making the correct temp vs not in most any phase change, purely by light intensity and ignoring seasonal temp drift. Looks like zombie power would be most feasible and realistic. Thanks
Alternatif design👍
What is the performance like in below freezing temperatures?
Wax motors have been used in car thermostats for decades and are quite strong..... This seems like an excellent purpose for a scaled up one.
Until you don't bleed the system properly and a tiny amount of air gets in the way. lol
The issue is that probably not idea for regions with a lot of cloud cover as the clouds will probably mess up the timing since it using solar energy to heat up wax. Not sure how well it would work in cold windy climate as I suspect the temperature is going to interfere with timing.
My thought would be a panels mounted on a teeter totter mount with a motorized screw drive mechanism. This way you can mount a lot of panels using just one mount with one motor that does not need to be excessively powerful. You wouldn't get the same range of motion (perhaps +30 to -30 degrees delta 60 degrees) so it would be a compromise between a fix and full tracker mount. With the panels balanced like a teeter totter and a screw drive you won't need a large motor & the screw drive would prevent the wind or other dymamic forces from changing the position. You might be able to just use a commercial linear drive.
I'm ok with 5 days out of a month it doesn't track. IF, there is a way for me to manually put it on track when the sun comes back out.
Aaron, The optics of the HelioDrive permit a 2.5 hour "window" of opportunity to catch the sun. In other words, if direct sunlight is lost during the day for less than 2.5 hours, the Tracker will pause but catch up to track the sun for the rest of the day. This video definitely illustrates this... czcams.com/video/pLOPgyvpklA/video.html
Tropism is a work used in virology. I follow virology a bit now for obvious reasons. Thanks for the video.
So, I was wondering how it goes back to the east after it has tracked for the day. Then I realized you said it lifts the 2000 lbs of block four inches. So I'm guessing that the weight of the blocks returns the tracker to the east? If you could confirm my theory I would appreciate it.
I've seen this sort of thing opening a window in a green house. When heat goes up the piston extends and window open, as heat escapes the piston cools and contracts.
So my guess on how this functions is that as the sun hits the mirror in the morning it heats the wax and the piston starts turning, it turns until it's not pointing at the sun enough to generate more heat and stops there (and maybe starts turning back a bit?). As the sun moves it will again hit the mirror better to heat it again and make the piston turn more. After sun goes down the piston cools down and returns to morning position.
To me seems like this might have way too many issues. What happens if on a sunny day you get a heavy rain for an hour or so. Will this cool it down so that it turns back and won't track the sun anymore? Maybe it's not such a problem at Phoenix and such.
Zero of your vids I do not like- like before I even see them - Know they are top !!!!
An explanation of how melting wax causes the piston to move would have been nice.
look up greenhouse roof venting. they use an oil filled piston that expands the oil when temp goes up and that extends piston.
Wax is contained in a piston capsule. Heating the wax causes it to expand and drive the center rod out. Returning when cool. Used in automobile thermostats and many other devices.
@@joeKisonue
I did know when watching the video but until the first time such devised was explained to me I didn't and I remember the frustration of not understanding and the anger in finding out it could be explained in ten seconds but wasn't.
Great idea and project genius like. thanks for posting..
This has the same concept as an old carburetor choke that used wax. As it heated up, it softened the wax and the small spring opened up the choke. I've been experimenting with a small hydraulic cylinder and container that has propane in it, as it heats up, it displaces propane into the cylinder and moves the panel. Solar is supposed to affordable if you are going to use it in a remote place. Store bought trackers puts it thru the roof.
Thanks 👍
What is the solar tracker without the parabolic reflector?. I like the idea of no extra power used and we get snow in Michigan so the reflector would not work in the winter. I am also looking at one the used gas in a tube that moves the panels with out power...Thanks, Jim
In the winter you just aim towards South and take what you can get
@@joeKisonue Thanks. I went to a solar seminar in Kalamazoo, Mi, a few years ago and the guy was sell fixed systems and when I asked about trackers he said they are not worth it, they won't make much more than a 5% increase and I knew better just from adjusting mine 5 degrees every 15 days. I have 6 panels that I move N-S and I'd love another 6 panel tracker system. I keep looking. this is very interesting to me.
I like these mechanical trackers
Could something like that be made in the diy setting?
Thanks
I will preface this by saying I don't have much experience with solar trackers specifically, but I have a few observations from a EEs POV that likes to dabble in mechE:
I would expect this would still have a hard time competing with a fixed installation on cost. The added complexity of the mount to allow a panel to tilt and remain sturdy is a realtively significant fixed cost of any tracking system no matter how it is actuated (would love to be proven wrong).
Cool as it is, this could also be matched for cost and reliablity (but not simplicity) by an electronic solution with a high level of redundancy. I don't know if anyone is actually manufacturing something like that right now though, but electronically tracking the sun can be done for pennies in BOM cost. A low power set of highly geared redundant motor provides quite a lot of actuation force.
I mention the electronic tracking because as you say this solution has the ability to 'get lost' on certain days. If they can solve that issue and keep cost equal to an optimal electronic solution I would be impressed. And I would probably prefer this method, if it didn't add more than ~20% cost (which will be hard).
Edit: Now that I think about it using an electronic control to actuate the wax motor would be ideal, if they could find a way to do that while still using the suns heat to provide the heat for the wax cell the electronics could run from a tiny non-tracked solar cell.
Someone else in another reply comment had mentioned they got a quote for an 18-panel tracker; more than $10,000. The cost isn't justified on a dollar-per-kilowatt hour basis.
@@JohnDoe-zl6qw Wow if that's the case I would rather just buy another 18 panels for that cost!
Obviously some people with very limited space will still find a use for this, but it sure is niche.
I remember seeing a similar system on a show called "The Inventors" as a child in Australia. Cool tech for back then, but these days with the crazy cheap cost of microcontrollers, stepper motors and drivers etc., one had might as well go with a $50 high-tech solution instead. At least it would be perfectly accurate.
Cool though... I do get a kick out of fully mechanical contraptions, especially mechanical computers.
Mike That tracker was invented by the Little brothers from Mt Isa in Queensland. It tracked the sun for a solar water heater and was very simple and reliable.
How does it reset?
Look at them cows go. Bring one to the racetrack!
What about high wind environments such as in Kansas where winds can easily become in excess of 20-50 mph ?
I’ve often thought that the easiest way to make a tracker would be to use a mechanical clock timer.. or is that too easy?
Many trackers are made that way.
I had heard of a tracker made of fluid-containing cylinders. The sun would hit the cylinders, turning the fluid to steam and the weight would shift the assembly.
Lots of people are suggesting in the comments of Dr. Matt Carricker of Off the Ranch channel that you would be great to work with for his off the grid building solar needs...
You know what would be cool? If we can have solar panels mounted with full rotation, so that we can point them down when there is hail or heavy weather, so that they last longer. Is anyone doing that? :)
raspberry pi, 3d printed plastic 4-split cover, 4 photo-diodes, 2 motors on worm gears, gears/rods/basic construction, probably less than $200 of DIY solar tracker. Most of it can fit on the corner of the panels, and yeah it might not be purely mechanical, but it's more cost effective, takes up far less space, easily scaled, and a lot less chance of degradation from weather and pressure gradients.
Hi, yeah I agtee. Do u have an instruction video for that and link for the diodes and motors? Thanks
7 minutes of talking, and you still didn't explain how it actually works, apart from that it has a piston and some wax! Disappointed...
Wax comes in a huge variety of temperature characteristics. Wax is not compressible. Wax expands when it melts and shrinks again when it cools. Expanding wax pushes against the piston.
Similar actuators have been in use for decades in greenhouses to open vents. This is a very beefy version.
I understand that. But how does it translate this into motion, controlled by the position of the sun? How does the weight come into play?
@@ScottsSynthStuff as he explained in the video, the weight is just to show what it can move, not part of a normal installation. Expanding wax pushes a piston, creating linear motion, (my educated guess starts here) pushing on an arm or frame out toward the edge of the panels, which rotate on a central hinge. that mechanical linkage converts linear to rotation just like any rotator or scissor lift for any large object like a big satelite dish, or hydraulic floor jack, swinging gates, etc. even the anti-slam cylinder linkage on a door works the same way (but on compression stroke not expansion). and of course the greenhouse vent acuators I previously mentioned are the same but smaller.
@@Sylvan_dB You're on it. The expanding wax pushes a piston that probably activates a screw drive that turns the unit. I wish he'd given us specifics. I mean, he is an engineer...
Ok BUT HOW DOES IT WORK ??????
does this mean that it wont work in cold climates and winter because it will be too cold for wax to melt?
And SNOW cover?
I would have liked some more details. So.. the melting wax expands, pushing the piston and turning the panel and lifting the weight? How does it deal with seasonal changes? Is that more weight than the wind can generate on that surface area or..?
If you need more details, then go to their website ...
@@vtorsi610 Yeah, that was like a year ago. I didn't get an informed response, so I'm not going to bother. I'll just assume that the 'tech' doesn't work quite right yet and keep my open for new developments in the future.
Weight it to demonstrate its strength. Imagine a very large panel.
Very neat. How about leaving the Solar panel fixed. Then, positioning a fixed, but adjustable, band of reflective material to mimic the trajectory of the sun. This way throughout the day its always getting additional sunlight. You could even get a table to show you the sun's trajectory on any given day, and periodical...every couple of weeks....tweak the reflective band to that trajectory. Just a thought.
What ever happened to the tracker using freon made by the guys at The Mother Earth News?
that’s very cool, impressive concept for sure. The question is of course it it better to buy these or buy more panels for a cost standpoint.
He said a couple of times that 20% more panels would be cheaper.
Very interesting...👍👍
I saw a video using just photoelectric panels to track the sun, it seems like a excellent solution.
czcams.com/video/Oj1E7o7J3qc/video.html
I still don't understand how it works. There's a piston and a heavy counterweight, and a parabolic collector on top, but what actually MOVES the piston up and down, and based on what criteria?
Ah, the piston moves out. The top half fixed to panel, bottom to base. There is a helical groove along the inside of the base tube and a dowel sliding in it attached to the piston. Think a long spiral staircase. By forcing the dowel plate through a spiral it causes rotation
What about adding fresnel lenses to focus the solar gain on the tracker
realy cool respect from austria
Great!!!
How well do they work in winter weather? Northeast
The HelioDrive tracking operation is not really affected by ambient temperature. We do engineer the wax for climate. But, it's direct sunlight (solar thermal) that does all the work. Check this out... czcams.com/video/m7tvms5rgo8/video.html All of our initial pilot projects were installed outside Denver, CO.
Too cool. And the shirt is awesomesauce.
Isn't this going to be VERY temperature dependent? Meaning the tracker will not move when the temperature is too low for the expansion medium to heat sufficiently to move the piston. It doesn't take much to heat the medium when it is 70 degrees, versus when it is -20 degrees.
So genius
I like the idea of not having actuators that are connected through a sun tracker or a computer program; however, as you stated, if you have some cloudy intervals where the parabolic mirrors cannot be utilized, then you have missed your window of opportunity to catch up. Not so efficient.
Another valid point you bring up is space. In my case, I don't have a lot of it and would greatly benefit from a tracker. Sometimes you have to spend extra to gain something positive, and in this case more efficiency out of your solar array is worth it.
How big & expensive is the steel pole and concrete pier that is needed to support 18 Solar Panels ?
How much did it cost?
Cool
How far apart do your need to space the Solar Panels, to not caused shading on its neighbor? Are you going to mount 18 Solar Panels on one giant Pole Mount? Is that very expensive?
I'd be interested in fixed pole ground mounts. I know I've mentioned this before but, a fixed ground mount is becoming less attractive to me over fixed pole mount setups.
Well a ground mount makes it easy to clean and maintain your panels. Especially if you live in a region that gets snow.