Performance analysis of a solar tracker driven by a microcontroller-embedded computer program

The objective of this paper is to analyze the performance of a solar tracker, which is a system that rotates a solar photovoltaic panel to position it in front of the sun to optimize its performance. For the design of the system, we use a low-power solar panel, a microcontroller, a DC signal motor, two light sensors, and two resistors. We consider two configurations of the system: a permanently moving solar panel to always face the sun and a periodically rotating solar panel to position itself facing the sun at times when its intensity should be maximum. A computer program in C language embedded in the microcontroller allows us to control the permanent or periodic rotation of the solar panel and thus ensures the operation of our mobile solar panel system. We analyze and compare the power of the solar panel in these two configurations to determine which is more advantageous. We find that the permanently moving solar panel performs better than the periodically rotating moving solar panel. We also find that the power of the mobile solar panel in both configurations is higher than that of the fixed solar panel. This last result is explained by the fact that the power of a solar panel depends on its position relative to the incident light flux.