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EP-4736632-A1 - PHOTOVOLTAIC SOLAR PANEL

EP4736632A1EP 4736632 A1EP4736632 A1EP 4736632A1EP-4736632-A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a photovoltaic solar panel of the type that rotates around a horizontal axis to adjust the inclination thereof depending on the altitude of the sun. The advantage of the invention resides in including in a photovoltaic solar panel at least one deployable surface that can slide without using electricity and utilizing only the force of gravity. To that end, the photovoltaic solar panel includes a mechanical retaining device provided with a pivoting piece that acts on a retaining lug and a release lug, wherein the pivoting piece is traversed by a ball the position of which defines a locked or unlocked position, and therefore prevents the deployable surface from sliding in the locked position and allows the deployable surface to slide in the unlocked position.

Inventors

  • Díaz López, Juan Diego
  • SOLER ESTEBAN, ALVARO
  • Zuazo Saenz de Viteri, Abraham

Assignees

  • POWERFULTREE S.L.

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20240619

Claims (14)

  1. A photovoltaic solar panel (1) of the type that rotates around an axis of rotation to adjust the inclination thereof depending on the altitude of the sun, characterized in that it comprises: - at least one deployable surface (3) arranged under a photovoltaic solar panel (1) that can slide by gravity in the direction perpendicular to the axis of rotation (2) of the photovoltaic solar panel (1), - linear guides (22) arranged on the deployable surface (3), - a release retainer (31) fixed on the deployable surface (3), - an end-of-travel retainer (5) fixed on the deployable surface (3), - a mechanical retaining device (7) integral with the photovoltaic solar panel (1) provided with a pivoting piece (6) which pivots about its shaft (9), having a protrusion (10) and respective lugs at its ends: a retaining lug (30) and a release lug (23), and wherein the pivoting piece (6) is traversed by a ball (8) the position of which defines a locked or unlocked position, such that the release lug (23) in the locked position faces the release retainer (31) and prevents the deployable surface (3) from sliding, whereas in the unlocked position the retaining lug (30) faces the end-of-travel retainer (5) after the sliding of the deployable surface (3), wherein the sliding of the deployable surface (3) on one or both sides of the photovoltaic solar panel (1) runs through the linear guides (22) arranged on the deployable surface (3), and wherein the mechanical retaining device (7) locks and unlocks the sliding of the deployable surface (3) depending on the position of the pivoting piece (6) defined by the position of the ball (8) which is modified according to the rotation of the photovoltaic solar panel (1).
  2. The photovoltaic solar panel (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that the linear guides (22) are arranged on the sides or in the central part of the deployable surface (3).
  3. The photovoltaic solar panel (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that it is provided with deployable surfaces (3) that are deployed on one or both sides of the photovoltaic solar panel.
  4. The photovoltaic solar panel (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that the release lug (23) and the retaining lug (30) are electromechanically activated for the controlled regulation by an electromechanical retraction locking device (24) on both sides of the deployable surfaces (3).
  5. The photovoltaic solar panel (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that the deployable surface (3) is provided on its upper part (16) with a reflective surface finish to reflect the light, generating a greater albedo effect.
  6. The photovoltaic solar panel (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that it has water dispensing nozzles (13), surface water detectors (14), and a control device (17) that allow water to be supplied to the upper part (16) of the deployable surface (3) so that the natural evaporation of the water supplied causes the cooling of the lower part (15) and of the upper part (16) of the deployable surface (3).
  7. The photovoltaic solar panel (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that it has at least one blower (12) that generates an air stream on the lower part (15) and the upper part (16) of the deployable surface (3), wherein the blower (12) is controlled by a control device (17) which, based on the signals provided by surface water detectors (14), temperature detectors, and relative humidity detectors, allow water to be dispensed on the upper part (16) by means of water dispensing nozzles (13).
  8. The photovoltaic solar panel (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that it has a rotary brush (25) attached to the deployable surface (3) in such a way that the rotary brush (25) is arranged in contact with the surface of the photovoltaic solar panel (1), allowing the rotary brush (25) to travel over the surface of the photovoltaic solar panel (1) when the deployable surface (3) slides in order to remove dust from the surface of the photovoltaic solar panel (1).
  9. The photovoltaic solar panel (1) according to claim 8, characterized in that the rotary brush (25) is attached to the deployable surface (3), preferably by means of a fixed L-shaped piece (26).
  10. The photovoltaic solar panel (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that it is provided with a plurality of rotary brushes (25) attached to the deployable surface (3) by means of preferably fixed L-shaped pieces (26), the rotary brushes (25) being located at intervals to travel across the entire surface of the photovoltaic panel (1).
  11. The photovoltaic solar panel (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that it has a water collection channel with an opening that, by means of connected tubes, collects the water deposited on the surface of the photovoltaic solar panels (1) which in turn pour the liquid deposited on the deployable surface (3) located in the lower part thereof to store the collected water in a tank.
  12. The photovoltaic solar panel (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that it has electronic lights, which are preferably spectrum-modulable, that are arranged on the lower face of the deployable surface (3) to photo-stimulate the photosynthetic behavior of a crop in different environmental and temporal conditions according to its phenological progress.
  13. The photovoltaic solar panel (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that the deployable surface (3) is implemented as a board made of a rigid material providing protection for the crop and consists of a solar panel, an opaque panel, a transparent panel, or a panel with photochromic or thermochromic behavior to control the amount of light or radiation reaching the crop.
  14. The photovoltaic solar panel (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that it has a thermal actuation component positioned under the deployable surface (3) to heat a volume of air and influence the creation of a controllable microclimate that can be adapted to environmental conditions.

Description

FIELD OF THE ART The present invention relates to a photovoltaic solar panel of the type that rotates around a horizontal axis to adjust the inclination thereof depending on the altitude of the sun to capture solar radiation at all times, enabling the protection of the crop located below movable photovoltaic panels, i.e., promoting plant well-being. To that end, the present invention is based on a system of deployable surfaces that can be deployed by gravity without requiring electricity and allow the protection of crops located under the photovoltaic panels. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The growing demand for energy and food is causing the responses to each of these problems to begin to converge in terms of the proposals or solutions being developed. Most of the energy that is expected to be generated in the future will require huge amounts of land, making it absolutely necessary to find solutions that reconcile land use, since without the aforementioned convergence in solutions, imbalances in food production will occur. Agrivoltaics is one of the solutions being used in response to the demand for land required by both activities, i.e., energy and food production. This technology refers to the use of the same space for energy and food generation, such that both processes, within certain restrictions depending on the type of crop and energy generation system, result in reasonable electricity production and, at the same time, a guaranteed result in terms of food production due to the protection that the photovoltaic structure installed on the same land provides to the crop located underneath same. The growing number of patents being published and that relate to agrivoltaics emphasize the arrangement of the panels, such as patent WO 2015/145351, which claims a photovoltaic panel installation movable above a crop, or CH 706132 A2, which does so with fixed panels, or patent WO 2013/117722, which also claims a system of panels above a crop with the possibility of rotation, in addition to the precursor patents applied for in 2013 by the Fraunhofer Institute. From the aforementioned patents and the numerous publications that have been written in relation to the protection that agrivoltaic systems provide to a crop located under them, it can be concluded that the surface of photovoltaic panels has a significant impact on the crop located under them that is both positive and negative. The most relevant impacts are: decrease in maximum temperature, increase in minimum temperature, decrease in evapotranspiration, decrease in crop water consumption, decrease in photovoltaic panel temperature and, accordingly, an increase in its efficiency, modification of the wind pattern on the surface above the crop, ability to prevent hail impacts on the crop, ability to modify the rainwater pattern on the ground, ability to modify the radiation pattern received by the plant, ability to modify the behavior patterns of certain pollinators, ability to control the growth of unwanted weeds, and other abilities or impacts that will become apparent as the first parks are being installed in France, Japan, the USA, and Germany. The following references are cited as examples of the reduction in water consumption in crops located under solar panels: Ali, A. (2022). Effect of Agrivoltaic Systems Development on Sweet Potato Growth . Agrivoltaics conference. Piacenza.Elnaz Hassanpour Adeh, J. S. (2018). Remarkable agrivoltaics influence on soil moisture, micrometeorology and water-use efficiency. PLoS ONE 13(11).Emily M. Ott, C. A. (2020). Environmental Analysis of Agrivoltaic Systems. Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences.Hadi A.AL agele, K. P. (2021). A Case study of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicon var. Legend) Production and Water Productivity in Agrivoltaic System. Sustainability, 2850. Richard J. Randle-Boggis, E. L. (2021). Agrivoltaics in East Africa: Opportunities and challenges. In AIP Conference Proceedings. AIP Publishing LLC, 2361(1), 090001.Stefano Amaducci, X. Y. (2018). Agrivoltaic systems to optimize land use for electric energy production. Applied Energy 220, 545-561. The state of the art includes documents WO2021075640A1, WO2023026278A1, and WO2021205114A1, which disclose, among others, systems of the so-called agrivoltaic type that use photovoltaic panels in a farming environment, combining agricultural activity with the generation of solar energy. However, none of them includes the solution proposed in the present invention that is provided with deployable surfaces arranged under the photovoltaic solar panel that can slide by gravity in the direction perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the photovoltaic solar panel. Based on the above, it is clear that the surface occupied by the panels in relation to the crop, both in terms of area and position, is relevant, therefore making it desirable for the area covered by panels/soil ratio to be adjustable, cost-effective, and easy to manage and maintain, since c