US 12,111,332 B2
System and methods for sensing environmental conditions surrounding photovoltaic systems
Christopher Thomas Needham, Mountain View, HI (US); and Frank Carl Oudheusden, Mont Vernon, NH (US)
Assigned to AVSENSOR, LLC, Mont Vernon, NH (US)
Filed by AVSensor, LLC, Mont Vernon, NH (US)
Filed on Feb. 16, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/651,418.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/151,208, filed on Feb. 19, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0268801 A1, Aug. 25, 2022
Int. Cl. G01P 1/07 (2006.01); G01W 1/04 (2006.01); H02S 50/00 (2014.01); H04W 84/18 (2009.01)
CPC G01P 1/07 (2013.01) [G01W 1/04 (2013.01); H02S 50/00 (2013.01); H04W 84/18 (2013.01)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus comprising:
a sensor mounted directly to a photovoltaic (PV) panel of a single-axis solar tracker PV array, the sensor measures movement vector data of the PV panel about a single-axis solar tracker path;
a data transmission device communicatively coupled to the sensor, the data transmission device transmitting the movement vector data as measured by the sensor;
a power supply, the power supply configured to power the sensor and the data transmission device; and
a central computing system that receives the movement vector data and generates a site-wide wind map across each single-axis tracker PV array within a given site by correlating peak magnitudes and timestamps of the movement vector data with wind speed and direction.