Sustainability Analysis of a Bi-axial Tracking System for a PV Platform
摘要
In today's industry, there is a growing emphasis among researchers and many leading manufacturers on considering the total environmental impact of a design of products during its development stage. In this current study, a 24 m2 bi-axial tracking system (azimuth - elevation) for photovoltaic (PV) platform focuses. The tracking system model was developed using SOLIDWORKS design software (version 2020), which features a specialized application called “Sustainability” that uses life cycle assessment (LCA, using Gabi software) to evaluate the three-dimensional (3D) geometry of environmental impact. The sustainability analyses of the tracking structure were conducted on four selected steel materials (plain carbon steel, cast carbon steel, cast alloy steel, and AISI 304) to estimate their carbon footprint, air acidification, total energy consumption, and water eutrophication. The study results obtained indicate that the plain carbon steel, cast carbon steel and cast alloy steel materials exhibit greater environmentally friendliness compared to the reference material (Galvanized steel).