Development of a sun tracking algorithm for solar panels for agricultural enterprises

Abstract

In agriculture, use of solar energy is of crucial importance for water heating and functioning of greenhouses. It becomes even more important in agricultural enterprises which are located far from electric energy transmission lines. Furthermore, in Russia the importance of solar energy for agricultural enterprises can be motivated by deterioration of electric energy transmission lines. The article is devoted to the development of a sun tracking algorithm for solar panels without using GPS or sensors. The tracking algorithm has been created on the basis of well-known astronomic methods for calculation of the Sun’s position in azimuth coordinates. The control diagram using the Arduino platform is presented. The authors’ program works for the calculation of the Sun’s position complete with evaluation of error. It also works well with servo drive units. The hardware and software bundle have shown acceptable error values which did not exceed 2 % while aligning the panels with the sun.