In August 2023, a severe storm caused the failure of many PV trackers at a solar park near Dubai. sbp sonne was commissioned by the client to carry out a root cause analysis (RCA) for the failed PV trackers. Three adjacent fields of the solar park were to be analysed, and the extent of the damage differed significantly.
One revealing finding of the analysis was that the maximum wind speeds measured during the wind storm were greater on all fields than the wind speed used for the assessment (design wind speed). The analysis also included working out possible reasons for the differences between the fields in terms of the extent of damage. A comparative analysis showed that different design bases were used for the designs. The PV tracker design of the oldest solar field is based on computational fluid dynamic (CFD) studies and Eurocode recommendations. Only little damage was detected in this solar field. The other two solar fields, on the other hand, showed a greater extent of damage. Their PV tracker construction is newer and was designed using results from wind tunnel tests (WTT) . These studies provide design factors that come closer to reality, but are also significantly less conservative than those of the CFD studies. Accordingly, the difference in the design methods was cited as the main reason for the different levels of damage. Further findings came from preliminary comparative calculations. The audit was carried out in accordance with the tried and tested German audit system, which offers reliable control and guarantees independence by applying the dual control principle.
