Design and experimental execution of a microcontroller (μC)‐based smart dual‐axis automatic solar tracking system

Abstract

Detailed analysis of microcontroller (μC)-based smart dual-axis automatic solar tracking system utilizable for different purpose is presented in this article. Working of the proposed smart tracking system is based on the automatic rotation of photovoltaic (PV) panel depending on the intensity of sunlight. It will help in maintaining the alignment of PV panels with the sunlight to obtain maximum solar power at any instance. Intensity of sunlight on a particular alignment of solar PV panel varies throughout the day. As the intensity of light on PV panel decreases, the proposed smart tracking system has the intelligence to automatically redirect the panel alignment to get maximum intensity of light. Four light-dependent resistor (LDR) sensors are placed on the surface of the PV panel to detect the intensity of light. Two servomotors are employed in the backside of PV panel system to align the panel with maximum luminous intensity. Design and construction of the proposed tracking system is presented to measure the efficiency over the fixed PV panel. Experimental results indicate that the power output of the PV system, using the proposed tracking system, is increased up to 19.73% when compared to the traditional fixed PV panel. The efficiency of the proposed design is considerably higher and comparable to the existing design which has an average efficiency of around 12-15%. 559

A simple and low‐cost active dual‐axis solar tracker

“…The experimental results of the fixed PV panel and the proposed smart DAST are presented in Figures and , these results show the average values of the output power of all experiments. Thereafter, the average increase in efficiency of the PV panel can be calculated by the Equation …”

“…In Figure C, the LDRs are positioned on the center of each sides. The top and bottom LDR are used to track the sun's movement south/north direction and the right and left LDRs are used to track the sun's movement in east/west direction . Figure shows the configuration used for LDRs in this work.…”

“…The top and bottom LDR are used to track the sun's movement south/north direction and the right and left LDRs are used to track the sun's movement in east/ west direction. 44 Figure 8 shows the configuration used for LDRs in this work. This configuration is similar to that presented in Figure 7B but without the use of barriers so that LDRs are placed in the four corners of the PV panel.…”

“…The most commonly used sensors are LDRs in view of their simple circuit and very low price . For these reasons, many researchers have used this type of sensors in their systems . These tracking systems use two or four LDR sensors, depending on the tracking structure (SAST or DAST), which detect the sunbeam and provide return signals to a controller (microcontrollers, PLCs or others), which in turn aligns the panel via one or two motors perpendicularly with the high sunbeams.…”

“…34 For these reasons, many researchers have used this type of sensors in their systems. 30,44,45 These tracking systems use two or four LDR sensors, depending on the tracking structure (SAST or DAST), which detect the sunbeam and provide return signals to a controller (microcontrollers, PLCs or others), which in turn aligns the panel via one or two motors perpendicularly with the high sunbeams. However, most of the previous works do not take into account the influence of LDR sensor circuit in the improvement of tracking accuracy.…”