Smartflower?

[ina]

Has anybody seen one of these in action? They seem to make more sense than rooftop installation, as they can (potentially) make use of the sun all day.

https://www.smartflower.com/en

You do need quite a large garden, though. And I wonder how they would cope with "normal" Scottish wind conditions.

[Odsox]

I saw this a while ago and thought then that it looks a bit flimsy, not to mention expensive.
I'm pretty sure it wouldn't survive a gale force wind unless it was folded up, and spending most of the autumn, winter and spring folded up it would take an awful long time to pay for itself.

[Odsox]

Just thinking about this after I posted the above, I'm a radio amateur and one of the things I do is bounce my radio signals off the moon, and of course that means my high gain antennas track the moon continuously (when switched on).
It can also track the sun both in elevation and azimuth, so mounting a large reinforced solar panel at ground level would be a lot more sturdy and probably cheaper.

[Flo]

Good grief - a radio amateur and not one of these CB folks.

[Odsox]

Oh yes, and I appreciate you knowing the difference.
I got my licence back in the day when the exam was a City & Guilds certificate, which gives me the privilege of transmitting on any of the 27 international bands from long wave to microwaves, not the single 27 MHz slot that CBers are allowed.
It keeps me off the streets anyway.

[Flo]

The equally certified husband used to do the telly end of the broadcast too. You'd not believe the fun we had with the telly licencing van as we didn't have commercial telly like the rest of the world. Anyway - well off topic.

This smartflower has been raised in other places I frequent and it has been treated with disrespect due to people doubting that it would be able to stand your average British winter weather (wind and snow being mentioned).

[Green Aura]

I saw it a while back too. First thoughts were, likewise, it wouldn't be much use here but I suppose if it encourages people who are more drawn to design than function it might get a few more solar panels out there.

[Weedo]

I agree with Odsox - looks a bit flimsy for real weather but I can see a use for it as a more portable arrangement.
Sun tracking installations are not uncommon here, particularly in the remote west - however these are quite robust fixed systems.