> There is no free lunch, and traditional solar installations don't usually have a lot of light missing the panels.

Traditional single axis tracking installations don't miss much light. These provide similar characteristics in space constrained areas, which are also closer to electricity consumers, potentially reducing transmission costs.

Fixed panels - common in denser areas, do miss a lot of light.

Solar PV panels are as cheap as plywood at this point (sometimes cheaper, depends on your market as always). The cost is mostly soft costs (permitting, etc), labor, and the frame. Rooftop residential solar is still 3x-5x more expensive than ground mount, commercial is somewhere in between due to scale. Ground mount total cost is ~$1/watt, residential solar ~$3-5/watt.

Easiest wins are code to require large commercial and industrial buildings to meet load requirements for future solar installs, parking lot canopies that are solar ready (or solar installed at time of canopy install), and in the case of residential, ground mount with low regulatory overhead and minimal to no shading.

Related:

NREL: Solar Installed System Cost Analysis - https://www.nrel.gov/solar/market-research-analysis/solar-in...

Cheap DIY solar fence design - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45597198 - October 2025

Great comment from that thread on cost breakdown (Alaska): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45692595

They look a lot nicer than just an array elevated off the ground, and the split angle makes more consistent power through the day. Doesn't look like this is targeting the bare-minimum-budget market. Looks like something I'd expect to see around an airport as functional decoration.

It increases capacity relative to footprint.

about 15 degrees

Yes. The second sentence describes the target niche:

> The funds are expected to help the startup scale its patented 3D solar towers that are designed to have high levels of energy density for space-constrained areas.

Third describes applications where this arrangement could be relevant:

> The product has applications for data centers, EV charging hubs, telecom towers, universities, and a range of industrial facilities, said Janta Power.

Clearly if land is cheap, traditional surface mount with no tracking is simpler and cheaper. This is targeting areas where land is at a premium but on-site capacity is still desired.

Looking at their site[0] that's exactly what they're doing. Vertical alignment rather than horizontal, turning to face the sun.

Which doesn't seem that excitingly new to me, but I don't know the industry that well. Has nobody tried vertical alignment before? Seems unlikely to me.

[0] https://jantaus.com/

And those motors plus their maintenance, aren't they adding significant setup costs and, well, maintenance? We don't create energy out of a vacuum and all this doesn't seem to be discussed there.

But you know they’re filling patents on that!

If the mounts are not too expensive it could make financial sense to even out the curve in the mornings and afternoons, especially as more and more solar comes online the price you get for your power will be higher if generation is offset from most other solar farms.

If you don't have space for more panels, tracking can get you more output for more hours of the day.

Humans are simply trees that evolved into having arms before they had leaves.