A IBRAP exhibited in Intersolar South America 2022, held in São Paulo (SP), two new features for the solar energy market: the Ecoground MAX aluminum structures and the Tracker – solar tracker.
According to engineer Fernando Bettiol Elias, a specialist in new business at IBRAP, Ecoground MAX was a development designed around a compact structure model, which aims to have more solar panels per area, using higher power models.
“So, we opted for a very light structure, a reduced size, thinking about all the wind characteristics in Brazil. In this case, winds from regions 1 to 5, reaching up to 180 km/h”, he highlighted.
According to him, the product, which has high durability, is 100% made of aluminum and, what does not have such specificity, are the fasteners that are made of stainless steel. “This way, we got a high guarantee of 20 years for both equipment”.
Regarding the Tracker, Bettiol highlighted that the product can also use galvanized steel pillars in standard market models. “It was a development based on some improvements, bringing the differences that extruded aluminum provides in relation to steel”.
“Therefore, we have fittings there for supports that facilitate installation. We foresee a very considerable gain in installation speed, we have several adjustment points, angular adjustment, height adjustment, supports that the modules will be fixed directly to them”, he exemplified.
Furthermore, he emphasized that they have sensors that monitor the shaft in order to avoid torsion problems. “Constantly carrying out this monitoring, an alarm will be generated for any anomaly.”
Product applications
“The products are intended for fixed ground or sun-tracking applications, both designed as solutions that seek agile installations and with guarantees against the elements, using extruded aluminum as the main raw material”, stated Bettiol.
In his view, each structure application project, whether with the fixed model or the tracker, needs to be particularly evaluated in terms of energy generation yields. “But what I can say is that with a solar tracker we will always have a higher yield in energy generation”.
“Depending on the latitude you have installed in the country, you can reach up to 25 – 26%, and this will translate into a considerable generation gain, when comparing the structures. Thus, each one has its particularities, but we have two products that are meeting what the market needs”, he concluded.
