I thought this ingenious invention might interest some folk on here:
The SunSaluter is a solar panel rotator designed for the developing world. Using only the power of gravity with a water clock, the SunSaluter enables a solar panel to passively follow the sun throughout the day, boosting energy output by 30% and producing four liters of clean drinking water.
8 Comments
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org · 25 pts · 1y
Principle: water clock, see-saw balance. Water drips from a bottle through a mechanical filter, reducing its weight and continuously swaying the solar panel. Needs to be refilled in the morning of course.
By the way, the thumbnail pic shows a misadjusted one, that solar panel is very much not facing the sun.
marcos@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1y
If only we managed to put some electricity generator there somewhere, we could avoid the trouble of having to fill that water bottle every day...
SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 1y
Only one axis. So only really useful near the equator?
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org · 23 pts · 1y
You only need one axis for the daily movement (it's not horizontal except for the rare few days between the tropics but you can modify the design to use a slanted one). A manual yearly movement can be done by having the user move a lever to the next date mark when refilling the bottle every day.
callcc@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1y
I beg to differ. But one axis is definitely better than zero axes.
DontRedditMyLemmy@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 1y
Earth rotation is, by definition, about a single axis. Therefore you only need one to track it. You are neglecting the possibility of an array normal that isn't perpendicular to the axis of rotation.
callcc@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
Sorry, you're actually right!
DiaDeLosMuertos@aussie.zone · 4 pts · 1y
Cheer up bud.