What Agri-PV asks of a tracker controller
- Positions that allow machines to pass and work under the modules
- Reliable safety positions, because people and machines are on the site
- Transparency for the farmers who work the land
- Evidence for planning according to DIN SPEC 91434
What Feldmelder does here
- Maintenance mode holds the rows where they are for the chosen duration – for work in the field, for example – and returns to automatic afterwards.
- The box computes the sun position and points the trackers; with backtracking it flattens the rows when the sun is low so that no row shades the next.
- Wind stow from the wind sensor in the field; while it is active the box refuses the "automatic" command.
- On an official hail or storm warning of the German Weather Service (DWD) for the site the box moves the trackers to the safety position (off until it is set up).
- On a DWD snow or ice warning the trackers move to the snow position so that the snow slides off.
- Read-only accounts and share links for a single plant – for owners, farmers or assessors, for example.
- Commands from the portal (safety position, automatic, maintenance) are signed and valid for two minutes only; the box rejects forged commands.
What this can look like day to day
Before mowing or harvesting, the plant manager puts the plant into maintenance mode; the rows stay still until the time runs out. The farmer sees the plant's state through a share link without being able to change anything.
Scope
- Fixed farming positions (e.g. vertical for machine passage) are not built in – they would be part of an Agri-PV project.
- No control by the light needs of individual crops.
- We make no statement on whether a site meets DIN SPEC 91434; that is a matter for the planning.
How we work: every function of the box, the tracker control unit (TCU) and the portal is covered by automated tests. Field installations start with a pilot project and acceptance criteria agreed beforehand. The live demo shows an example plant with example data.