Experimental analysis of a two-axis tracking system for solar parabolic dish collector

Abstract

Summary In this paper, an attempt has been made to develop a two‐axis tracking system for solar parabolic dish concentrator and experimentally evaluated the performance of the tracking system. In this proposed design, the sensor design uses the illumination produced by the convex lens on the apex of a pyramid to align the dish in‐line with the sun. The change in incident angle of the solar rays on the lens surface shifts the area of illumination from the apex of the pyramid towards its faces. Photodiodes placed on the faces of the pyramid are used as the sensitive elements to detect the movement of the sun. The sensor output is fed to a microcontroller‐based system to drive the stepper motor on the basis of the programmed algorithm such that it receives normal incidence of sunlight on the sensor. To evaluate the performance of the proposed system, a conventional available 1‐W photovoltaic (PV) panel is placed at the focal point to measure the short circuit current and open circuit voltage. With respect to the conventional solar PV panel, it is observed that the positioning accuracy of the proposed tracking system enhances the short circuit current of 0.11 A by 86%. Thus, the proposed tracking system can be used in a stand‐alone parabolic dish with concentrating PV module as the focal point for further studies.

Integration of a Solar Parabolic Dish Collector with a Small-Scale Multi-Stage Flash Desalination Unit: Experimental Evaluation, Exergy and Economic Analyses

“…Compared to other solar collectors, the PDCs are the most efficient collectors due to their continuous tracking system. Compared to the collectors with the fixed surface, the continuous sun-tracking systems in PDCs will help to increase the collected solar energy by 46.46% [30]. In addition, minimum thermal losses of PDCs make them the most thermally efficient collectors among the other types [23].…”

A review study on mathematical modeling of solar parabolic d ish‐Stirling system used for electricity generation

“…However, for up down movement of the dish elevation tracking is used in which angle varies from 0° to 90° . 94 The solar declination angle (δ) varies continuously through the year depending upon seasons 46 . The typical layout of the dual axis racking system is shown in Figure 22.…”

“…On the basis of movement, the solar trackers are classified as single axis and dual axis, on the basis of operation, they can be classified as continuous and discrete tracking systems. The single axis and dual axis trackers are further classified on the basis of their installation; that is, Horizontal Single Axis Tracking system (HSAT), Vertical Single Axis Tracking system (VSAT), Tilted Single Axis Tracking system (TSAT), Polar Aligned Single Axis Tracking system (PASAT), Tip‐Tilt Dual Axis Tracker (TTDAT), and Azimuth‐Altitude Dual Axis Tracker (AADAT) as illustrated in Figure 23 94‐96 …”

Solar tracker transcript—A review

“…The driver-based Sun followers are classified as: a. Passive trackers [8][9][10][11][12][13] b. Semi-Passive trackers [14][15][16][17] c. Chronological trackers 18,19 d. Manual trackers 20 e. Active trackers [21][22][23][24][25][26][27]…”