March 11, 2023, 10:01 – Updated on March 12, 2023, 00:43.
It does not reach 144,600 inhabitants and is located in the remote British Columbia on the west coast of Canada, but for some time it was part of the industrial sector that looked to the city of Kelowna with interest. Reason: at the end of the year 2021, he built a huge tower there Three sixty-year-old Solar company with which he wants to show that maybe until now it has not always been right when they put our photovoltaic installations. After all… Why must all solar farms be laid out in the same way, with horizontal panels?
Their initial results are certainly interesting.
“Solar tower plan”? That’s right. Convinced that the vertical arrangement of solar panels could offer interesting advantages, in October 2021 the Three Sixty Solar firm decided to build a prototype shell in Kelowna, Canada. The objective was twofold: to demonstrate its power and ability to withstand the weather conditions of British Columbia. Now, after 16 months of analysis, he decided to share his first conclusions.
How are the towers? Three Sixty Solar’s report does not explain the specifics of the Kelowna Tower with which it endured the tests, but the company has a video on its website that describes the characteristics of the structures. The height ranges between 12.2 and 36.6 m and at its start – according to PV Magazine – each structure can generate up to 250 kW of pure energy. Among its advantages, Three Sixty Suns highlights the short time it required for assembly: once the foundation was finished, the church was built in just five working days with the help of a forklift.
What’s the point? Perhaps the greatest of all is saving the earth. By going up the solar panels vertically, instead of extending them transversely, the towers require less land. And this, according to the context, is a great advantage. “Our high-density solution can be deployed in urban environments where land is precious or in farms where land is vital for income generation, even in difficult areas such as mountains or valleys,” says CEO Brian Roth. According to its design, the towers use up to 90% less land.
Is it only convenient for you? No. Roth emphasizes that its capabilities are scalable, so they can be configured to “virtually meet the specific needs of any project.” There would be more “strong points”. The Vancouver-based firm notes that the towers are easy to maintain, fix close to end users and offer a “vandal-resistant design”; but the greatest virtues include the angle of its inclination.
Three Sixty mentions that there are studies that show that dirt and dust cause a loss of electrical operation that can rise to 30% in some desert regions. Another analysis in California concluded that the percentage of fences ranged from 1.5 to 6.2%. In Koelowna’s study, the company measured the current and voltage of the boards before and after they cleaned their surface with a damp cloth and found the values to be almost identical. “This indicates that the records have not been dirty for more than a year,” the company concludes.
Does it affect production costs? He claims to be sixty-three. “The advantages of a positive 90º inclination angle have been demonstrated in terms of avoiding energy losses due to dirt. This feature allows developers to avoid high operating and maintenance costs, normally associated with the need to perform periodic cleaning in their facilities for decades. useful life”, the report emphasizes, which affects the “significant cost savings” that this entails for owners.
And how does it withstand the nine, the wind, etc.? This is one of the main questions that the company wanted to answer. The conclusion is that the tower suffered significant damage despite being exposed to rain, hail and wind gusts of more than 120 kilometers per hour. During the storm, a pile of snow had blocked the corner of the floor. “It allowed it to be separated from the tower, which allowed it to work with all its efficiency,” says the analysis, which reports positive data on heat waves up to 39ºC.
Photos: Three Sixty Solariums
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