"To us it looks like it tracks vertically rather than horizontally"

I guess that if you mount it on a roof or something else that has an angle, it could track the sun pretty efficiently even if it is low on the horizon.

Dont forget the sunball...
http://www.greenandgoldenergy.com.au/images/P9200006a.jpg

"the Sun Tracker will increase the power output of photovoltaic arrays by over 200%"

There are so many things wrong with this statement. First of all, do they really mean power output, or energy? If they do mean power, there should be zero difference between the peak power of a one-axis tracker and a fixed array. Both would be at a maximum when oriented South (in this hemisphere ;-) ).

The one-axis tracker would, however, allow you to generate more energy, which is what I presume they meant. But even if that is the case, there is no way the output will increase by over 200%. That would imply that your PV output would triple, and is most certainly nowhere near the truth. Just try a simple PV calculator like this one: http://www.energy.iastate.edu/renewable/solar/calculator/. Put in a fixed array, oriented south with a tilt of 40 degrees (latitude for Iowa), and then put in a one-axis tracker like the product. You'll see about a 30 percent difference, which is much more typical of the benefit of trackers.

Someday I'll have to learn how a solar tracker works. I would have to imagine that solar trackers just have to be calibrated for the time of day and day of year and then oriented correctly N/S, and then it's just automated. I mean, the sun comes up and goes down in predictable patterns, so what's the big issue with 'tracking'?

reader SC reminds us of why we should think before we write. Looking at the picture instead of thinking about how it might be used, it did not occur to us that it should be mounted on an angle with a vertical axis parallel to the earth's(and we have a telescope with an equatorial mount, we should know better) and then only has to track east/west. We also thank him for the output information

A solar tracker like that would track the variation in the sun's position throughout the day. However, the sun's height in the sky has a range of nearly 46 degrees due to the tilt of the earth. The earth's tilt is about 23 degrees, so if your panels are oriented to receive maximal light if the sun were at "neutral" height, the sun would rise 23 degrees beyond that by the time of the summer solstice, and fall 23 degrees by winter solstice. Since this variation is easily essentially sinusoidal, it's not much more work to add a motor that very slowly varries the tilt of the panel throughout the year. The gains from an additional adjustment motor could be up to 8% if my calculations and data are correct.

As for "neutral" position, get a GPS machine, or even Google maps/Google Earth, and find your lattitude. Tilt your panels according to your lattitude. That will give you the most light for most of the time without any more adjustment.

I'm glad people are starting to take sun tracking seriously. It gives the most returns for the least increase in sophistication of the equipment. Photovoltaic research for increased cell efficiency costs a lot more.

Regarding the parallel/perpendicular argument, they're still correct. The panels can be parallel to the face of the sun; they remain perpendicular with respect to the sun's rays.

Why buy it when you can get the instructions here and build it yourself. exactly how you want it. step by step. http://www.instructables.com/ex/i/76455B860F841029BC4A001143E7E506/

P.S u may hav to be a member to view this page. its free though to sign up. plus youll find lots more cool stuff

i want to buy your sun tracker im in australia can this be done thank you

Take a look to this site for an interesting Sun Tracking system:

http://www.solartrack.it

whta is the capacity of the tracker?can it be use for solar collector that is 17 kg per square meter by weigth.

If the picture was turned it may cause less
confusion Charles