Oasis 3.0: Design and Development of a Solar Tracking System

Overview

Oasis is SunPower's product for the solar- power plant sector. Oasis is a complete solution that consists of SunPower's high-efficiency PV modules, a custom designed tracker, custom designed electrical BOS, inverter, monitoring and control system. Oasis 3.0 is the third generation of the product and contains a newly designed 4m dual-drive tracker.

Design and development of a solar tracking system involved defining tracker architecture, system layout, system allowable loads, component loads, component design, analysis, testing and manufacturing, system installation and field support.

Project Contributions

Defined Tracker Layout

  • Created an efficient and optimum tracker layout with zero loss of PV area

  • Defined layout that minimized unique SKUs and was easy to implement and adapt to create tracker configurations

  • Applied factors such as supply chain strategy, ease in manufacturing, shipping density, component loads and ease of installation during layout design

Component and Assembly Design and Analysis

  • Led design for torque tube assembly (torque tube, coupler and connections) and piles

  • Led design for a glass-glass PV module attachment

  • Developed DFMEA and performed DFM analysis

  • Concepts developed and modeled in SolidWorks

  • Proficient in GD&T and drafting

  • Performed advanced structural analysis using Abaqus

  • Hand calculations and structural code calculations (AISC 360-10, AISI S100, and RCSC) used for component loads and component design

  • Performed component and system level tolerance stack-up analysis using statistical methods

Component and System Design Validation Testing

  • Designed text fixtures for component and system design validation tests

  • Tested the components and assemblies for static loads and cyclic loads

  • Developed electro-mechanical controllers

  • Data acquisition performed using LabView

  • Data analysis using Python and Mircosoft Excel

Qualification of Production Tooling

  • Collaborated with Asian suppliers to develop and qualify production tooling for components

  • Collaborated on roll forming, forging, casting, welding, and swaging tooling

  • Designed instruments for production part measurements

  • Defined PPAP requirements: developed control plans, quality control requirements, reviewed PFMEA and suggested process improvements

System Installation and Field Support

  • Trained contractors for system installation

  • Trained engineers for system design

  • Collaborated with contractors and project engineers to resolve component and assembly issues related to design