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.
![rina_case_study_cover rina_case_study_cover](https://hub.arraytechinc.com/hubfs/rina_case_study_cover.png)
Download the Research
![rina_capex_opex_graph rina_capex_opex_graph](https://hub.arraytechinc.com/hs-fs/hubfs/rina_capex_opex_graph.png?width=332&height=293&name=rina_capex_opex_graph.png)
Lowest OpEx and O&M
Which single-axis tracker architecture can drastically lower O&M costs over the project lifecycle.
![array-product-tech1_hs array-product-tech1_hs](https://hub.arraytechinc.com/hs-fs/hubfs/RINA%20Campaign/array-product-tech1_hs.jpg?width=3307&height=2900&name=array-product-tech1_hs.jpg)
Best Tracker Design
Which design is most profitable: centralized tracker design or distributed architecture design.
![arrayrpcs-scaled-e1606340344415-p8h78m89j4atelzyznuhklpqcq80xql7v66j2eobuw arrayrpcs-scaled-e1606340344415-p8h78m89j4atelzyznuhklpqcq80xql7v66j2eobuw](https://hub.arraytechinc.com/hs-fs/hubfs/arrayrpcs-scaled-e1606340344415-p8h78m89j4atelzyznuhklpqcq80xql7v66j2eobuw.jpg?width=288&height=280&name=arrayrpcs-scaled-e1606340344415-p8h78m89j4atelzyznuhklpqcq80xql7v66j2eobuw.jpg)
Lifetime Project Costs
Data-driven research helps Developers, lenders, owners, and EPCs choose the appropriate tracker.