I friend I bought used panels from had sun-tracking on her panels and the frustrating thing is the energy they used up compensating for clouds and the tracker kept moving to find the sun. Mine are in a fixed position and I don't worry about trying to get every millivolt of energy from the array. If I want more power I add more panels and more batteries.
Yes, TODAY, the only reason to track is if you have some kind of restriction on the amount of panels...either a power company feedback issue, or space restriction. 15 years ago, when panels were 4-5 bucks/watt, it made economic sense to squeeze out every drop of power. Panels under a buck/watt, it no longer does.
If "using bigger relays made them last longer a bit longer" then that might be the place to start. I could slave the controller to send its 12v output to a 240V relay. I have a small pile of 240v to 12v transformers, and bridge rectifiers are almost free. Or maybe there are some that use solid state relays now. The problem here is wind also. I will limited to a single 300w panel per actuator.
The best video I've ever seen comparing fixed, single axis and dual axis. Major takeaways: He bought 400w panels locally for $100 each.... Each pad for each tracker requires $50 worth of concrete. Counting the concrete each tracker costs around $440 single axis, it will hold a lot more panels, 2kw maybe a few kw depending on the design. Dual axis was $775 and it will hold 800 to a thousand watts of panels. If you do the pads right it's more like $80 worth of concrete so probably around $500. That's not how I would have attached the base to the concert, not even close but that's just me, and it would have cost more. But I built shit like I want it to survive teotwawki and then some. Each tracker requires 12v power. So not a problem if you're only doing a 12v system, then its just more wire. If you're doing higher voltage you'll need a 12v battery and a panel that's compatible with a 12v charge controller. Or a more expensive charge controller can take higher voltages, say you're running a 48v system and you use a fancy more expensive CC that can pull that higher panel voltage and charge a 12v battery with it. I say use more wire and run everything off a pilot 12v system. Wire is cheaper than putting a 12v panel, 12v charge controller or a fancy expensive high voltage to 12v charge controller and battery on each panel unless you spaced your panels really far apart for some reason. Probably save some money here, not a lot and a lot of that will depend on your setup. Note most charge controllers can run dual voltages 12 or 24 volts now. You can use 24volt panels and a fairly common CC can be put on a 12v battery. Ive even seen one charge controller that will do 2 separate battery banks one 12v and the other 24v or both can be 12v or both can be 24v. A charge controller that will go from a 48v panel to 12 battery is still fancy and costs more. Main thing is panels are cheap. I say buy more panels, fixed racking is really cheap. Only use trackers if you have limited space or for some reason you need maximum power first thing in the morning or late in the evening, even then I would say use the minimum number of trackers to get the job done. Or just buy more panels and fix them so they provide maximum power at that time of day. Say you can't get more panels for some reason but you can get trackers, maybe you're in Alaska. Yeah you're looking at at least doubling the cost of your install for maybe 20 to 30% more power.
@oil pan 4 Alaska solar looks like this \Alaska Energy Authority > What We Do > Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency > Solar > Alaska Solar Projects All pork and FedGov dough
Back in the late 80s a friend sold me her old ARCO panels she had been replacing on the trackers she had running. She was frustrated because they used a lot of power running back and forth when there were clouds passing by. The tracker would chase the bright spots between the clouds. If it were up to me, I would put timers to control tracking so the clouds had no effect.
With many panels under $.30/watt this IMHO is the way to go. Less maintenance, fewer things to break. Personally, being in hurricane country I prefer having a substantial mount that will not fail at an engineered pivot point
