Produktutveckling av en solcellsställning

Sammanfattning: The market for large-scale solar parks is growing rapidly. The Swedish government has set goals to incorporate a larger amount of renewable electricity in the Swedish energy mix. To achieve this, new solar parks are being built in various locations throughout Sweden. Within these projects there are some tasks which take longer than others, and finding a suitable location is one of them. Sweden has a lot of forests and building solar parks in these, in an efficient way could expand the options for where and how the parks can be built.The purpose of this thesis was to develop a conceptual machine which could be used in the construction of solar parks in forests or other terrains that are considered “tougher” than the fields where solar parks are traditionally built today. The research question which this paper is based on is: “How can a solar panel mounting structure be designed to lower assembly time?”. This question is answered throughout this paper, but it should be mentioned that this project started with two different questions which aren’t of great importance, but they are mentioned in a suitable place in the paper.The theoretical framework presents the method that this thesis follows. It is a product development method created by Ulrich and Eppinger (2014), which is easy to follow and adapt to specific projects. The approach describes how the work was conducted. One notable difference that this project experienced compared to the generic product development process was that there was very little information available in online articles, scientific reports, or books regarding the research questions. This led to most of the information on which the work was based coming from interviews with key individuals from companies experienced in similar projects. The result of the work was a conceptual structure aimed at reducing assembly time. This was achieved by integrating the same functionality as the existing structures, in fewer components. The concept involves assembling a frame and attaching four panels to it, which are then delivered as a module to the site for installation. The result consists of two versions of this concept, one where the structure stands on one leg, and the other using the same frame but standing on two legs. The research question was answered by the group as the result shows a concept where certain components are prefabricated before being delivered to the installation site, reducing the time to perform certain tasks on-site.