Arduino based low cost active dual axis solar tracker

Abstract

Sun is an abundant source of energy and this solar energy can be harnessed successfully using solar photovoltaic cells and photovoltaic effect to convert solar energy into electrical energy. But the conversion efficiency of a normal PV cell is low. One of the main reason for this is that the output of PV cell is dependent directly on the light intensity and with the position of the sun in the sky changing continuously from time to time; the absorption efficiency of an immobile solar panel would be significantly less at certain time of the day and year; for the solar photovoltaic cells are maximum productive when they are perpendicular to the sun and less productive otherwise. So to maximize the energy generation and improve the efficiency; solar trackers come into play. This paper presents the design and construction of an inexpensive active dual-axis solar tracking system for tracking the movement of the sun so as to get maximum power from the solar panels as they follow the sun. It uses Light Dependent Resistors to sense the position of the sun which is communicated to a Arduino Uno microcontroller which then commands a set of two servo-motors to re-orient the panel in order to stay perpendicular to the sun rays. The design was constructed successfully and tested using Lab View to determine the improvements in efficiency. Evaluation results show that the new system performs 13.44% better than the immobile solar PV system.