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In the past few years, a great deal of interest has developed in the use of sun-tracking mountings for normal flat-plate PV systems. Such systems deliver more energy for the same nominal PV power, but the cost of tracking is also higher than that of normal fixed-rack mountings. Tracking systems that have two axes and follow the sun closely at all times during the day are currently the most popular. However, systems that move the PV modules around a single rotating axis are simpler than two-axis tracking systems and can therefore be manufactured at a lower cost. This article presents research conducted into the performance of different tracking options. The results show that an optimized single-axis tracking system can deliver almost the same energy as the two-axis tracking system.

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