Sushrut Bapat - Oasis 3.0: Design and Development of a Solar Tracking System

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

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