Project: Development of a Totally Passive Photovoltaic Solar Tracker
Identifying and exploiting sustainable energy sources to satisfy the world's growing demand is one of society's foremost challenges for the next decades. In particular, the efficiency in converting sunlight to electricity via photovoltaic solar cells is a paramount contribution to dramatic reducing cost (price and ecological impact) of electricity. The main innovation of the proposed SUNFLOWER system lies in its totally passive nature: in fact the system can mimic the kinematics of sunflowers, which follow the sun without the need of electric power or motors, exploiting the different thermal expansion of metallic heat responsive elements. The objective of the project is to overcome the drawbacks associated to current state-of-the art PV panels, whose power output depends on a number of factors, including operating temperature, irradiance and incident angle of the solar radiation. The SUNFLOWER technology can be successfully applied to small plants: highway cameras and signalling; urban lighting; water pumping stations; rural development; house micro-generation; space applications.
| Acronym | SUNFLOWER |
| Duration | 01/01/2013 - 31/12/2014 |
| Project Topic | Environmental and energy technologies |
| Network | MANUNET II |
| Call | MANUNET Call 2012 |