Retractable Photovoltaic System by PeriniM

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

Hello everybody, this is my prototype of a Retractable Photovoltaic System.
WHY I DID IT
2015 has been proclamed by UNESCO "International Year of Light".
It is " a global initiative adopted by the United Nations to raise awareness of how
optical technologies promote sustainable development and provide solutions to worldwide challenges in energy, education, agriculture, communications and health. "



University of Padua (02/11/2015) has launched a contest in order to increase awareness of worldwide issues among students from secondary schools.


So I decided to join the competition focusing on solar energy.
WHAT IS MY PROJECT ABOUT?
How Does It Work
It consists on six panels, arranged as the petals of a flower, and a mechanism (using servos) which allows them to move. My idea was to close the "petals" when there is bad weather (such as rain, snow, hail...), in order to avoid damages to the solar panels, and let them opened when the sun is shining.
What's the purpose
I've invented this "solar flower" to be placed in every kind of place you like (desert, hills, mountains...).
If we think of all those solar parks located in a place where snow fallings are not rare, we can notice that they lose a lot of energy because of the whole layer of snow, previously felt on the surface. An issue brought by this problem is the need of a daily routine maintenance, to make them working again (often very expensive).
So, I've focused my mind toward only one thing: increase efficiency and reduce maintenance costs
Demostration Video