JPS6148981A - Snow removing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To measure the snow coverage on an objective snow removing surface easily and accurately, by a method wherein the snow coverage is measured from the difference of electro motive force between the photovoltaic element which is placed on the light receiving surface of solar cells which becomes snow removing objective and the photovoltaic element in which heating means are provided. CONSTITUTION:A sensor 2 is provided at the light receiving surface of a solar cell pannel. The temperature of a sensor 4 is controlled by a heating element 6. A measuring part 9 measures the difference of the electro motive forces of the photovoltaic elements 3, 5 of two sensors 2, 4 and sends signals corresponding to the snow coverage of the light receiving surface of the solar cell pannel to a signal generating part 10. The signal generating part 10 receives signals from the measuring part 9 and generates the specified signals only when there is the difference of the electro motive forces and sends to a control part 11. A snow removing device 12 is drived according to that signals until the snow coverage becomes to the degree without hindrance to the generation of electricity of the solar cell pannel, and removes snow on the light receiving surface.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] In the present invention, it is necessary to automatically remove snow within a fixed area by the necessary amount during the necessary time. For example, it relates to a snow removal system used in a solar power generation system.

[Prior art]

In devices and systems, such as solar cell power generation systems, where there should not be enough snow to interfere with power generation on the light-receiving surface of the solar cells during the sunshine period, the thick @ It is necessary to remove snow from the light-receiving surface of the battery to an extent that does not interfere with power generation to prevent deterioration of the electromotive force.

Until now, we have developed devices that measure the amount of snow by spatially propagating laser light and optically measuring the amount of snow that passes through the laser beam, and devices that heat and melt snow that has accumulated over a certain period of time. There are devices that measure the amount of snow by measuring the weight of liquid. But these devices.

This method has the disadvantages that it is difficult to measure the amount of snow on a sloped surface, such as the light-receiving surface of a solar cell, the measurement accuracy is poor when raindrops are included, and the measuring equipment is expensive, and it is not necessary. K had the disadvantage of requiring complicated equipment to remove the required amount of snow in a given amount of time.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to simplify and reduce system costs by easily and accurately measuring the amount of snow on a surface to be snow-removed using a pair of photovoltaic elements. The objective is to provide a snow removal system that is cost effective.

In order to achieve such an object, the present invention includes a first photovoltaic element installed on the light-receiving surface of a solar cell to be snow-removed, and a first photovoltaic element located outside the light-receiving surface of the solar cell and adjacent to the light-receiving surface. a second photovoltaic element installed at the second photovoltaic element, and a heating means for heating the photovoltaic element so as to melt snow adhering to the light-receiving surface of the second photovoltaic element; and the second photovoltaic element, by measuring the amount of snow accumulated on the light-receiving surface of the solar cell, and operating a snow removal device to remove snow based on the measurement result. It is. Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing an embodiment of the snow removal system according to the present invention applied to a solar power generation system;
FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram thereof.

In these figures, 1 is a solar cell panel to be snow-removed, 2 is a first sensor consisting of a photovoltaic element 3 installed on the light-receiving surface 1a of this solar cell panel 1, and this photovoltaic element 3 is The surface on which the amount of snowfall is to be measured has the same slope as the light-receiving surface 1a of the solar cell panel 1, and is installed within the measurement surface. 4 is the solar cell panel 1
A second device consisting of a photovoltaic element 5, a heating element (also referred to as a heater) 6, and a temperature measuring element 7 installed outside the light receiving surface 1a of the
In this sensor, the photovoltaic element 5 is equipped with a heating element 6 and a temperature measuring element 7 inside, and is installed close to the photovoltaic element 3 on the same plane with the same inclination angle. ing. The photovoltaic element 5 is provided with a heat insulating section 8 to insulate the outer peripheral surface other than the light-receiving surface, and is heated by a heating element 6 to a temperature that melts snow adhering to the light-receiving surface. It has become. Note that the temperature measuring element 7 is only for detecting the heating temperature of the photovoltaic element 5, and its detection output is input to a control section 11, which will be described later.
1, temperature control is performed to melt the snow adhering to the light-receiving surface of the photovoltaic element 5 by controlling the heating current supplied from the deep stain part 13 to the heating element 6.

Further, reference numeral 9 inputs the electromotive force sensed by each of the photovoltaic elements 3 and 5 of the first and second sensors 2 and 4, and from the difference between these electromotive forces, the light-receiving surface of the solar cell panel 1
A measurement unit that measures the snowfall amount to 1L, 10 is this measurement unit 9
A signal generating section 11 is a control section which generates a signal corresponding to the snowfall amount obtained from the signal generating section 1°, and this control section 11 receives as input a signal corresponding to the snowfall amount generated from the signal generating section 1°, Based on this signal, the snow removal device 12 is operated to remove snow until the amount of snow reaches a level that does not interfere with the power generation of the solar panel 1, and the above-mentioned temperature control is performed using the detection output of the temperature measurement element 7 as input. It has become a thing. The snow removing device 12 is usually one that utilizes well-known thermal melting, hot water, or mechanical snow removal equipment. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 21 denotes a shelter 122 for the solar cell power generation system, which is its power storage unit.

In the snow removal system configured in this way, when there is snow on the light-receiving surface 11L of the solar panel 1, the light-receiving surface of the photovoltaic element 3 of the first sensor 2 has the light-receiving surface of the solar panel 1 to be measured. There will be the same amount of snow as in 1a. Furthermore, since the temperature of the light receiving surface of the photovoltaic element 5 of the second sensor 4 is controlled by the heating element 6 built into it,
Snow adhering to the light-receiving surface is heated and melted, and there is no snow accumulation on the light-receiving surface. Therefore, when each photovoltaic element 3 and 5 receives light in the first and second sensor sections 2.4, the electromotive force of the photovoltaic element 3 deteriorates and fluctuates depending on the amount of snow that falls on the light receiving surface. do. On the other hand, since the snow on the light receiving surface of the photovoltaic element 5 having a built-in heating element 6 is heated and melted, there is no deterioration in the electromotive force. Therefore, the measuring section 9
The difference in the amount of electromotive force sensed by both photovoltaic elements 3 and 5 is measured, and a signal corresponding to the amount of snow on the light-receiving surface 1a of the solar cell panel 1 is sent to the signal generator 10.

As a result, the signal generating section 10 receives the signal from the measuring section 9 and generates a predetermined signal and sends it to the control section 11 only when there is a difference in the amount of electromotive force. The snow removal device 12 can be driven to remove snow from the light-receiving surface 1a of the solar panel 1 until the amount of snow reaches a level that does not interfere with power generation by the solar panel 1. Therefore, when the solar panel 1 is able to generate electricity, it is possible to automatically remove only the necessary amount of snow without interfering with electricity generation, and the energy required for snow removal is minimized, which is simpler than the conventional method described above. This configuration allows snow to be removed easily and accurately.

In addition, although the above-mentioned example shows the case where it is applied to a solar cell power generation system, the present invention is not limited to this, and snow removal within a certain area is automatically performed in the required amount during the required time. It can also be applied to various systems using required solar cells.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the snow removal system of the present invention,
By using a pair of photovoltaic elements as sensors and operating a snow removal device to remove snow based on the difference in electromotive force between the pair of photovoltaic elements, snow removal from the light-receiving surface of the solar cell can be achieved with a simple configuration. This can be easily carried out to the extent that there is no deterioration in power generation.

In addition, by measuring the amount of snow by using the difference in electromotive force between a pair of photovoltaic elements, the amount of snow on the solar cell light receiving surface can be determined not only by snowfall but also by wind and other influences. This makes it possible to measure the amount of snowfall as it increases or decreases, and this also has the effect of simplifying and reducing the cost of the snow removal system.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing an embodiment of the snow removal system according to the present invention applied to a solar power generation system;
FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram thereof. 1...Solar panel, 2...1st cell,
3... Photovoltaic element, 4... Second sensor, 5...
... Photovoltaic element, 6 ... Heating element, 7 ... Temperature measuring element, 8 ... Heat insulation part, 9 ... Measurement part, 10.
... Signal generation section, 11 ... Control section, 12 ...
Snow removal device, 13...Power supply section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] a first photovoltaic element installed on the light-receiving surface of the solar cell to be snow-removed; a second photovoltaic element installed outside the light-receiving surface of the solar cell in close proximity to the light-receiving surface; A heating means is provided for heating the photovoltaic element so as to melt snow adhering to the light receiving surface of the photovoltaic element No. 2, and the difference in electromotive force between the first photovoltaic element and the second photovoltaic element is determined. A snow removal system characterized by measuring the amount of snow falling on the light receiving surface of the solar cell and operating a snow removal device based on the measurement result to remove snow.