Arctech opens the first PV company-owned wind tunnel laboratory
The Inauguration ceremony of Arctech‘s wind tunnel laboratory was successfully held at the headquarters located in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, China on Sept. 6, marking the company as the world’s first in the PV industry to own a wind tunnel laboratory.
Solar trackers are widely known as rigid structural parts; while the main axis of solar tracker is susceptible to deformation caused by vertical bending, torsion, and complex natural conditions in different regions. Therefore, more advanced analytic tests are necessary for reliable tracker design as the mounting of ultra-high-power modules, which are in strong demand by the industry, involves higher wind loads added to the trackers. Arctech centralizes the wind tunnel test by formulating strict design specifications and ensuring the execution. The new laboratory marks another milestone of the company’s determination in guaranteeing safety and stability and ultimately empowering the popularization of solar tracker.
With world-leading structural static pressure and structural dynamic response testing capabilities, the effect of wind on trackers is studied at speeds of up to 30m per second, a speed which would cover most likely real-world scenarios. The technical database will be leveraged as the source of basic design parameters for product design, R&D and product structure design verification in the future.
Utilizing the technical database for product concept design and structure design, the wind tunnel Laboratory will allow the company to mimic different local environments worldwide and serve the very purpose to lower LCOE (Levelized Cost of Energy) of PV power plants by increasing the stability of trackers.
Bruce Wang remarked, “We believe that the launch of Wind Tunnel Laboratory will continuously enhance Arctech’s presence in lowering LCOE of PV power plants as the lab will enable us to carry out feasible and compliant wind tunnel tests for accurate aerodynamic information and optimize the design for mitigating wind-related risk on trackers and equipping trackers with better wind resistance capability.”
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