The eco-kinetics tracker series III
Fri 19 Mar 2010: The eco-kinetics tracker series IIITracy Petersen
Tihei Mauri ora!
Kei āku nui, kei āku rahi, kei nga tōpito e whā o te motu.
Tēnā koutou.
Tēnā hoki koutou te whānau whānui.
He mihinui tēnei kia koutou,
Tēnā tātou katoa.
The Company
Eco-kinetics is an Australian based company with branches in Aotearoa, arā kei Kawakawa (Feilding), and Fiji. The aim of the company is to provide engineering excellence and a passion for environmentally sustainable energy. Eco-kinetics experienced engineering team is dedicated to providing clean, renewable energy solutions for the enterprise (utilities), commercial and domestic energy markets that offer measurable cost-benefit advantages.
The company is small and comprises various departments and the one that, I feel, is most exciting is Research and Development. From here we design new products and/or customise existing systems to meet our customer needs.
Eco-kinetics Tracker Series III
The tracker has been derived from the requirement to provide larger and more efficient, renewable source, energy generation systems. This has been driven by a combination of rising energy costs; the need to reduce carbon emissions; and the growing awareness that we must care for the planet on which we live, gather our food and, raise our children.
Solar panels have been around for a while and they trap the sun’s energy turning it into electricity. To work effectively they need strong sunlight and to point within approx. 10 degrees of the sun’s position in the sky. So by mounting the panels on a moveable array that can track the sun we can increase the output from these panels as they will gather the early morning and the evening rays as well as the sun at midday, “nga hīhī tiaho o Tamanui te Rā”.
The eco-kinetics tracker series III has been developed to track the sun on 2 axis. That means it tracks from east to west and it will also follow the sun from low in the sky (early morning) to when it’s at its highest (noon) then back down. No electricity is used to power the tracking system or move the array during its normal tracking cycle. A thermal hydraulic system was invented by an Australian (Mike Patterson) and was used on smaller systems (up to 10 panels). This system has now been scaled up to drive 30 and 60 panel systems and the future will be 200 panel trackers.
To give an idea on the panel sizes and numbers, approx. 21 panels are required to supply power to an average home, this is a 3.5 kilo watt (kW). The 5 kW and 10 kW systems are also popular for the domestic market. Other systems proposed are as large as the imagination from 1 Mega watt (MW) to 40 MW, 40 MW will supply 12000 homes with clean green renewable energy.
My small part in all this
Mā te rongo, ka mōhio;
Mā te mōhio, ka mārama;
Mā te mārama, ka mātau;
Mā te mātau, ka ora.
Ko Rangitīkei te awa,
Ko Ngāti Pikiahu-Waewae te hapū,
ko Poupatatē me Te Tikanga ōku Marae
My natural parents lived in Tokorangi and I was adopted to the Petersen’s in Halcombe where I grew up. When I left school I joined the Airforce where I trained and worked as an Aircraft Technician for 25 years. During my time in the Airforce I was deployed overseas on peace keeping missions and various exercises. I was also posted to the Navy for three years where I was in charge of the mechanical maintenance of the ship borne helicopter during peace keeping in the Arabian Gulf.
After my time in the Airforce I completed a year long total emersion Te Reo Māori course through Te Reo Maioha at Ōtaki. Ka nui ngā mihi ki te whānau whānui o Te Reo Maioha.
Following this I completed a 4 year engineering degree at Massey University where I achieved my Batchelor of Engineering with honours.
After working for NZ Trailers, Contact Energy and, Fibreglass Developments, I have the privilege of designing, developing, building and project managing this system. The journey through all of its manifestations and sizes is exciting and, I am happy that I can use my skills to return something small to Ranginui rāua ko Papatūānuku.
Nā
Tracy Petersen
Design and Testing Systems Engineer
Eco-kinetics
eco-Kinetics P/L
Unit 6, 6 Quinns Hill East Road,
Stapylton, Qld, 4207
Tel: +617-3441 4200(AUS)
Fax: +617-3386 1589(AUS)
Mob: +64 27211 7227(NZ)
Email: marie.tracy@xtra.co.nz
