Q: Portasol Trackers in Australia?

[adam_j_bradley]

Wondering if anyone knows if Portasol http://www.solartracking.com.au/ is still doing business in Australia and if anyone has one of their Trackers? Number is disconnected...

Sincerely,
Adam

[Aussie Bob]

They're near me, about 50ks away. Their site is working so I guess contact them from their site. Products look interesting too.

[adam_j_bradley]

Tried that, no response

[Aussie Bob]

I might wonder out that way in the next few days. I'm going camping at the Bunya Mountains for a few days next week, and Crows Nest is on the way so I'll make a detour and see if they're still at that address they have on the site. I'm interested in their products too, seems the trackers don't use small motors.

[adam_j_bradley]

Yup! Same premise as that behind the Zomeworks trackers http://zomeworks.com/products/pv-trackers/introduction

They do a nice 168sq ft/15.6 sqm model. Somewhat pricey, though and I can't find a local supplier http://zomeworks.com/products/pv-trackers/specs-prices

Neat idea!

Sincerely,
Adam

[Aussie Bob]

It's super windy with those dust storms still around, so I'm hanging off going back to the Bunya Mountains to camp. I'll get there when the weather turns good and drop in on their address in Crows Nest on the way.

[dave7]

Bob, just to let u know that Portasol Trackers in Crows Nest Qld. has sold out...the new company is currently only producing 5kw trackers & above....Sharon from Ecostar ( 0416515381... was old distributor for Portasol ) is currently trying to get them to produce smaller trackers similar to the old Portasol range...she is taking contact info so she can notify those interested when new range becomes available. (not soon...prob. next year sometime)...best wishes, dave

[Aussie Bob]

Thanks for that info Dave.

[dave7]

no worries bob....took a bit of trackin down to find out what happened...kept runnin into brick walls...didn't know if the guy died or what as website is still there...took the Crows Nest paper to tell me the business had finished....& it was only a chance google that found Ecostar from S.A..... Micheal Patterson fell out with his partner & they opted to sell the patent....won't be till next year sometime before smaller systems will be produced again...i'm after a 2 sq meter for about 445watts worth of panels in all weird & wonderful sizes ...got a wheaties powered tracker that has made a hellova difference with 215watts of panels on it...but prone to operator error when i forget to turn it or not home to do it.....so i'm well aware of just how important a tracker is....& to do it Passively with oil & controlled hydrolics & a return spring is the way to go i reckon.......(p.s. i'm too old to be a junior)

[Spinner]

Portasol

Dave7 has the correct story with respect to Portasol.

The patent to which he refers whilst probably having an Australian patent origin, is listed as US Patent US 7,240,674 B2 of July 10 2007, strangely enough under the name of Patterson.

I have been unable to establish the identity of the current owner of the patent, but I suspect it may be Eco Kinetics, and Australian company who make LARGE ground mounted trackers.

Eco Kinetics are, not surprisingly, reluctant to talk about the technical side of their trackers, but they are definitely based on fluid expansion hydraulics.

A few months ago, apparently Kyocera Australia installed a Portasol system in central Australia. I think it is still working. Where they sourced that tracker is not known to me, but if anyone ever finds out, I would be more than pleased to hear about it.

But it appears that the finer (and necessary) technical details of the system are now a closely guarded secret. So my suggestion is, if you want to go down this track privately, make up a model and start experimenting. Michael Patterson is on record of saying that he had to experiment for 20 years and made literally scores of prototypes before he got it to work satisfactorily.

Good luck.

[Ogden Power]

Hi Bob Portasol trackers in their early form were not a very good product and they had little or no backing from the company. I installed 7 of their trackers in a system in remote Northern Territory in late 2008, all of which failed and we resorted to retrofitting electric rams to make the system viable. We had discussions with their lawyers and ended up losing a considerable amount of mony on the project. The concept as shown had it worked would have been very good. The other Portasol trackers installed at the Desert Knowlegde Precinct solar research facility Alice Springs have also failed and are now held in a stationary position by stays.

[Robert Brennan]

I have Portasol Trackers

I have about 10 Portasol Trackers and repair information.
I also by default have the repair rights to reverse engineer the models I own.

The units work wery well as long as you are prepared to do routine maintenance on them.

On unit I have is a portable 40 Watt unit and it tracks from 0 deg to about 160 deg or so.
Send me an email if you havea ny more interest