PV Panels

The PV panels are located between the house and tower some ten meters from the tower. They are wired to produce 24VDC at 480W peak. The wires run from the PV panels down into the ground and through safety tubing to the house. The wind generator and PV panel wiring was buried together in the same 70 cm deep ditch. The PV panels are grounded. The PV panels are relatively low to the ground and have a small number of trees behind them both of which help to protect against damage from high winds. The panels are mounted on a passive solar tracker, which means it uses no electricity or electrical components to follow the sun. This tracker uses dual long thin black canisters of pressurized gas that are located at the left and right of the PV panels and are interconnected at their bottoms with a thin metal tube. The differential heating of the panels through solar radiation causes one side canister's gas to get hotter than the other and the gas expands in this one. As it expands some of this gas is pushed into the other canister, causing one to get lighter as gas leaves and the other to get heavier as the gas enters. When the panels face directly into the sun, there is even heating of both canisters and therefore both canisters remain at the same weight and remain in balance. This passive tracker has wind shock absorbers to stabilize the panels under high wind conditions. The concrete foundation was made in the same way as the wind generator foundation.