IIT Delhi researchers develop portable solar energy towers that shadow-less and highly efficient

IIT Delhi researchers have developed portable solar energy towers that are shadowless and highly efficient in solar power generation even in non-peak sunlight hours.

They are auto-rotating, come in both mechanical and non-mechanical tracking, have a high energy density, meaning that they can produce more energy per footprint area, and can be used in all Indian seasons of the year.

The entire mechanical solar photovoltaic unit can be mounted on a truck, made functional and taken anywhere to generate power. They are shadow-less because the solar panels at bottom are not shadowed by the top panels.

Who developed the portable solar energy towers?

The IIT Delhi researcher team which developed these highly efficient and shadow-less solar energy powers was led by physicist Professor Dalip Singh Mehta.

Both the systems are patented by IIT Delhi and licensed to Bangalore and Mumbai-based EP Sunsol Private Limited for commercial installation.

EP Sunsol has already deployed the developed systems at Chennai, IIT Delhi, and Navi Mumbai of 3kW, 4kW and 5kW, respectively.

How can the IIT Delhi-developed solar towers be used?

The space-saving ‘non-mechanical’ and ‘mechanical’ tracking solar PV towers of 3kW and 5kW capacity, developed by the IIT Delhi scientists, are scalable to higher capacity with the concept of solar tower array (green energy field).

They are useful for:

• Electric Vehicle charging stations.
• Rooftop high-efficiency solar power generation for independent Houses/ Schools/ Hospitals/ Shops/ Telecom Towers/IT sector and more.
• Vehicle mounted solar tower with solar tracking for power generation can be utilized for agriculture purpose (Agri-photovoltaics) such as solar water pumping, charging battery for tractors etc.

Why are they better than conventional solar power-generating panels?

“After intensive research, we got success in arriving at the light weight and cost-effective novel design on mounting Solar PV towers along with high reflectivity mirrors to follow the Sun movement,” said Professor Dalip Singh Mehta.

“Both non-mechanical and mechanical solar towers are able to generate 20-25% and 25-30% more power respectively, while utilizing only 50-60% roof top space compare to conventional solutions,” the professor added.

The solar panels along with high reflectivity mirrors in the non-mechanical tracking solar tower are vertically mounted in a particular way (based on location/city) that they fall in the line-of-sight of Sun during morning, mid-day and evening hours, hence leading to high efficiency solar power generation.

The mounting methodology helps to generate more power during non-peak hours of the Sun i.e.9 am to 11 am, and 2 pm to 5 pm, apart from the peak hours of 11 pm to 2 pm.

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