A Comparative Technical Analysis of PV Tracker Architectures and Associated Lifetime Costs
Photovoltaic power plant equipment is typically selected almost exclusively on upfront cost, as capital expenditure, or CapEX. But a more valuable analysis for PV plant design, build, and lifetime management would be to add accurate operational expense, or OpEx, to the initial financial decision-making process and project component selection.
This analysis proves that centralized single-axis trackers offer benefits over decentralized trackers:
- An Increased Net Present Value (NPV) by over $1.3 million dollars
- Lowered LCOE over your project’s lifetime using a centralized tracker architecture
- reduced total lifetime OPEX by 42% by using a centralized tracker vs. a decentralized tracker
- Increased plant energy output versus distributed tracker architecture, and
- Decreased project lifetime trackers costs of 7%
This research provides solar developers as well as asset owners and plant operators with real-world financial data to make more thoughtful project component selection and gain insight into how these initial choices surprisingly affect the total lifetime cost of ownership of a PV power plant.
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Lowest OpEx and O&M
Which single-axis tracker architecture can drastically lower O&M costs over the project lifecycle.
Best Tracker Design
Which design is most profitable: centralized tracker design or distributed architecture design.
Lifetime Project Costs
Data-driven research helps Developers, lenders, owners, and EPCs choose the appropriate tracker.