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by wongarsu 1519 days ago
As GP argued, the movement can be entirely precomputed, and even if it isn't "move the panel to face the brightest spot" is trivial to solve with simple components. The only real advances I can imagine to make this profitable would be better motors that are cheaper and use less energy, or new types of solar panels that are more directional (e.g. a solar concentrator setup where you move mirrors to hit a smaller collector).

The latter exist but don't seem more profitable (in the case of PV panels because of lifetime problems due to more heat), and while we have gotten a bit better with motors I don't think there even is a lot of headroom to gain much efficiency.