Minimizing energy shadow losses for large PV plants

As PV energy costs decreases, large PV plant provided by two-axis tracking systems are getting more important in the PV market, such as the Sevilla PV plant. The work introduces a new computing model for the engineering phase in order to decide the best two-axis tracking distribution in the field taking into account the shadow losses. The method is based on the shadows projection interaction between two-axis tracking systems (trackers), within a large PV generator plant, in order to minimise distances between trackers. Since large PV plants require a considerable land surface, land costs are important and must be considered in the cost of PV energy. The proposed method allows optimising the occupied land surface without sacrificing global energy production, serving as a tool in the decision making process for obtaining an economical balance between the cost of energy and the land cost.