Week 3 - Solar Panel Designs

For week 3, we began creating designs for solar panel mounts. These mounts will go on top of our tracks and will meet the following goals:
  • Curved array
  • Easy to access
  • Cover side of tracks
We achieved the first two goals by creating a solar panel array that starts at a 10 degree descent with the inner panels and drops to a 20 degree descent with the outer ones. We mounted them to the L beams by using L brackets that will go above and below the beam, allowing us to slide the panels back and forth on the track. We also created a special rack that connect the panels to the brackets, however we will be looking into better methods of creating them. The time and cost of manufacturing them is not desired when compared to other methods such as sheet metal.

Figure 1: Completed first design

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