Application of slew drive for solar tracker

The slew drive is evolved from slewing ring, therefore, the slewing drive has some characteristics of the slewing ring. In addition, the slew drive has some advantages that the slewing ring does not have, such as integrated design, convenient installation, high protection level and self-locking, etc. Therefore, slew drives have a wide range of applications in many industries such as machinery industry, lifting industry, medical industry and solar tracking. Next Unique Transmission will introduce the application of slewing drive in solar tracking system in detail.

In the global energy resources are more and more tense and environmental pollution is more and more serious environment, it is particularly important and urgent to vigorously develop clean new energy. As a kind of renewable energy, solar energy has developed rapidly all over the world in recent years. Put simply, solar energy converts the light and heat irradiated on the earth by the sun into a kind of energy. Therefore, the development of solar energy has many advantages and convenient conditions. For example: there is no geographical restriction, it can be collected on land, mountain, sea and other places; it will not cause environmental pollution; total amount is huge and will not be exhausted.

At present, there are two main forms of solar energy development and utilization in the world: solar thermal power generation and photovoltaic power generation.

Photovoltaic tracking power generation is the establishment of large-scale photovoltaic panel groups in open areas, photovoltaic panel components are a kind of power generation device. Direct current will be generated when sunlight shines on photovoltaic panel components. The current solar photovoltaic tracking systems mainly include: oblique single axis tracking system, dual axis tracking system, linkage horizontal single axis tracking system and column-type single axis tracking system.

Photothermal tracking power generation uses a group of flat mirror plates to converge sunlight in a certain place, use the collected heat to generate steam, then the steam drives the steam turbine to drive the generator to generate electricity.

The current solar thermal tracking system mainly includes: CSP tower power generation, Photothermal trough power generation, Dish power generation and Photo-thermal Finiel type generation.

Whether it is photovoltaic power generation or solar thermal power generation, the slew drive is the main component in tracking system. In solar photovoltaic power generation, in order to maintain a certain angle between the photovoltaic panel and the sun’s rays and maximize the absorption of solar radiation, a slew drive is needed to adjust the horizontal rotation and pitch angle of the photovoltaic panel. The same is true for solar thermal power generation. In order to ensure that the flat mirror plate concentrates the sunlight on the heat collection place at any time, a slew drive is needed to adjust the position of the flat mirror plate.

Different solar tracking systems, the installation method, position of the slew drive and the use of slew drive is also different. If you want to know more, please contact us, our engineers will answer for you.