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Comment by irrational | Hacker News Reader

>the panels are illuminated by the sun at different angles, and the maximum possible angle occurs only once a day

What would it take to put these on motors that follow the sun? How much of the energy being generated by the panels would be eaten up by the motors? Would it be a net benefit to have the panels being at the maximum possible angle throughout a greater part of the day, even if part of the energy is having to drive motors?

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Most big installs have motors. The motors don't take much power to slowly move the panels through the day. The downside is the extra expense of the motors and setup.

Also, for the cost of adding motors, would the money be better spent on buying more fixed solar panels instead?

Footprint ends up being the hard part. Do you have room for 4, 8, 16, 32 panels? Sometimes a couple of panels on motors are all you have room for.

For large installations where land is plentiful, it comes out that way. In other conditions, it might not be the case?

Motor mounts don't generally work for rooftop unless you have a flat roof like a commercial/industrial install. They're also more failure prone so in most cases it's easier to just install more panels.

Even ground mounts are generally not motorized for home installs.

Unless you have very limited space it's more cost effective and much easier to maintain to have more fixed panels.

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