September 2026Analytical Instrumentation & Environmental Monitoring
The capital investment required to develop a solar power plant is substantial, making efficient, reliable and precise performance essential. Sun trackers play a key role by keeping solar panels aligned with the sun throughout the day, enabling more sunlight to reach the panels directly, and delivering more optimised use of irradiance over the course of the day.
Senseca has introduced its SEMS-2000 solar energy measurement system for automatic monitoring of direct normal irradiance/DNI, global horizontal irradiance/GHI, and diffuse horizontal irradiance/DHI. The SEMS-2000 is based on the SunTracker-2000, a compact 2-axis solar tracker designed for accurate and reliable solar radiation measurement in unattended outdoor installations.
“The SEMS-2000 SunTracker has been developed on an astronomical elevation-azimuth tracking algorithm, enabling it to continuously align mounted sensors with the sun to support high-quality measurement of DNI, DHI and GHI. While easy to operate, it is designed for long-term performance at remote sites,” says Jan Grobler, managing director of Senseca South Africa.
“High tracking accuracy and low power consumption make the system suitable for autonomous and remote installations, even in demanding environments with wide temperature ranges, high humidity and strong wind exposure. It offers precise sun tracking with a pointing accuracy of ±0,10° on both axes, improved to better than ±0,010° with an optional active sun sensor,” says Grobler.
The SEMS-2000 is a complete solar radiation measurement system supporting measurement of DNI, DHI and GHI using pyrheliometers, pyranometers and optional shadow disk assemblies mounted on the tracker structure. It consists of the SunTracker-2000 mechanical structure with an MTD3K control unit data acquisition system which manages sun position calculation, power supply, pointing status and communications.
With its robust, compact design and remote operation optimisation, it delivers reliable and precise unattended performance requiring minimal maintenance and site inspections. Smart operating functions include night standby, reduced holding torque and power management, supporting autonomous operation.
“An optional ADAS-3000 checks solar radiation data coherence and warns users when maintenance is required, giving plant management improved efficiencies through better use of installed PV capacity,” says Grobler. “The Senseca SEMS-2000 enables a solar power plant to use available sunlight more productively, which in turn, leads to increased energy production and improved plant efficiencies. It is a highly accurate sun tracking instrument delivering pinpoint precision and reliability.”
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Analytical Instrumentation & Environmental Monitoring
Industrial Climate Engineering director, Alin Gomes explains why effective HVAC goes beyond specifying equipment on capacity, covering load profiling, ventilation requirements, heat recovery and turnkey delivery for specialised manufacturing and processing environments.
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Rising water costs and pressure on infrastructure are changing the way industries view reverse osmosis. G-Chem Aquacare is developing tailored, containerised solutions that make the technology more accessible for South African industry.
Read more...Meteorological data logger with up to 32 analogue sensors Senseca
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