US 12,078,979 B1
Stowing of photovoltaic (PV) modules in response to weather event forecasts
Sanket Shah, Round Rock, TX (US); Kyumin Lee, Albuquerque, NM (US); and Kiran Vasishta, Albuquerque, NM (US)
Assigned to ARRAY TECH, INC., Albuquerque, NM (US)
Filed by ARRAY TECH, INC., Albuquerque, NM (US)
Filed on Jul. 13, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/352,159.
Int. Cl. G05B 19/4155 (2006.01); F24S 20/00 (2018.01); H02S 30/20 (2014.01); H02S 40/12 (2014.01)
CPC G05B 19/4155 (2013.01) [F24S 20/00 (2018.05); H02S 30/20 (2014.12); G05B 2219/37283 (2013.01); H02S 40/12 (2014.12)] 11 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system for stowing one or more photovoltaic (PV) modules based on a snow event forecast, the system comprising:
a tracking system comprising a PV module and a tracker drive mechanically coupled to the PV module, the tracker drive being configured to position the PV module into a stow configuration;
a sensor configured to identify a presence of snow at a location of the tracking system; and
a control server communicatively coupled to a weather forecast server, the control server being configured to:
receive a snow event forecast for the location of the tracking system,
determine that the snow event forecast exceeds a threshold level of severity,
receive, from the sensor, information regarding an amount of snow at the location of the tracking system,
determine that the amount of snow at the location of the tracking system exceeds a threshold amount of snow, and
automatically position the PV module into the stow configuration based on the snow event forecast exceeding the threshold level of severity and the amount of snow at the location of the tracking system exceeding the threshold amount of snow.