PV self-consumption in cities: Solarfighter experience

Small grid-tied PV systems for self-consumption and/or net-metering applications can intensively contribute to spread distributed renewable energy generation and the penetration of smart grids. Also they offer environmental benefits and savings for consumers. Unlike medium-large scale PV facilities, the integration of these small PV systems in city environments faces some specific challenges. Solarfighter is an all-in-one micro PV tracking system developed for this kind of applications. We explain here our experience, analyzing the specific needs of these applications and how they are solved in Solarfighter. © 2013 IEEE.