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One of the most promising renewable energy sources characterized by a huge potential of
conversion into electrical power is the solar energy. The conversion of solar radiation into
electrical energy by Photo-Voltaic (PV) effect is a very promising technology, being clean,
silent and reliable, with very small maintenance costs and small ecological impact. The
interest in the Photo Voltaic conversion systems is visibly reflected by the exponential
increase of sales in this market segment with a strong growth projection for the next
decades. According to recent market research reports carried out by European Photovoltaic
Industry Association (EPIA), the total installed power of PV conversion equipment
increased from about 1 GW in 2001up to nearly 23 GW in 2009.
The continuous evolution of the technology determined a sustained increase of the
conversion efficiency of PV panels, but nonetheless the most part of the commercial panels
have efficiencies no more than 20%. A constant research preoccupation of the technical
community involved in the solar energy harnessing technology refers to various solutions to
increase the PV panels conversion efficiency. Among PV efficiency improving solutions we
can mention: solar tracking, optimization of solar cells geometry, enhancement of light
trapping capability, use of new materials, etc. The output power produced by the PV panels
depends strongly on the incident light radiation.
The continuous modification of the sun-earth relative position determines a continuously
changing of incident radiation on a fixed PV panel. The point of maximum received energy
is reached when the direction of solar radiation is perpendicular on the panel surface. Thus
an increase of the output energy of a given PV panel can be obtained by mounting the panel
on a solar tracking device that follows the sun trajectory. Unlike the classical fixed PV
panels, the mobile ones driven by solar trackers are kept under optimum insolation for all
positions of the Sun, boosting thus the PV conversion efficiency of the system. The output
energy of PV panels equipped with solar trackers may increase with tens of percents,
especially during the summer when the energy harnessed from the sun is more important.
Photo-Voltaic or PV cells, known commonly as solar cells, convert the energy from sunlight
into DC electricity. PVs offer added advantages over other renewable energy sources in that
they give off no noise and require practically no maintenance. A tracking system must be
able to follow the sun with a certain degree of accuracy, return the collector to its original
position at the end of the day and also track during periods of cloud over.
Background:
A Solar Tracker is a device onto which solar panels are fitted which tracks the motion of the
sun across the sky ensuring that the maximum amount of sunlight strikes the panels
throughout the day. The Solar Tracker will attempt to navigate to the best angle of exposure
of light from the sun. This report aims to let the reader understand the project work which I
have done. A brief introduction to Solar Panel and Solar Tracker is explained in the
Literature Research section. Basically the Solar Tracker is divided into two main
categories, hardware and software. It is further subdivided into six main functionalities:
Method of Tracker Mount, Drives, Sensors, RTC, Motors, and Power Supply of the Solar
Tracker is also explained and explored. The reader would then be brief with some analysis
and perceptions of the information.
By using solar arrays, a series of solar cells electrically connected, a DC voltage is
generated which can be physically used on a load. Solar arrays or panels are being used
increasingly as efficiencies reach higher levels, and are especially popular in remote areas
where placement of electricity lines is not economically viable. This alternative power
source is continuously achieving greater popularity especially since the realisation of fossil
fuels shortcomings. Renewable energy in the form of electricity has been in use to some
degree as long as 75 or 100 years ago. Sources such as Solar, Wind, Hydro and Geothermal
have all been utilised with varying levels of success. The most widely used are hydro and
wind power, with solar power being moderately used worldwide. This can be attributed to
the relatively high cost of solar cells and their low conversion efficiency. Solar power is
being heavily researched, and solar energy costs have now reached within a few cents per
kW/h of other forms of electricity generation, and will drop further with new technologies
such as titanium oxide cells. With a peak laboratory efficiency of 32% and average
efficiency of 15-20%, it is necessary to recover as much energy as possible from a solar
power system. This includes reducing inverter losses, storage losses, and light gathering
losses. Light gathering is dependent on the angle of incidence of the light source providing
power (i.e. the sun) to the solar cells surface, and the closer to perpendicular, the greater
the power. If a flat solar panel is mounted on level ground, it is obvious that over the course
of the day the sunlight will have an angle of incidence close to 90 in the morning and the
evening. At such an angle, the light gathering ability of the cell is essentially zero, resulting
in no output. As the day progresses to midday, the angle of incidence approaches 0,
causing a steady increase in power until at the point where the light incident on the panel is
completely perpendicular, and maximum power is achieved. As the day continues toward
dusk, the reverse happens, and the increasing angle causes the power to decrease again
toward minimum again. From this background, we see the need to maintain the maximum
power output from the panel by maintaining an angle of incidence as close to 0 as
possible. By tilting the solar panel to continuously face the sun, this can be achieved. This
process of sensing and following the position of the sun is known as Solar Tracking. It was
resolved that real-time tracking would be necessary to follow the sun effectively, so that no
external data would be required in operation.
motion of the sun across the sky ensuring that the maximum amount of sunlight strikes the
panels throughout the day. When compare to the price of the PV solar panels, the cost of a
solar tracker is relatively low. Most photovoltaic solar panels are fitted in a fixed locationfor example on the sloping roof of a house, or on framework fixed to the ground. Since the
sun moves across the sky though the day, this is far from an ideal solution. Solar panels are
usually set up to be in full direct sunshine at the middle of the day facing South in the
Northern Hemisphere, or North in the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore morning and
evening sunlight hits the panels at an acute angle reducing the total amount of electricity
which can be generated each day.
The space requirement for a solar park is reduced, and they keep the same
output.
In terms of cost per Watt of the completed solar system, it is usually cheaper
to use a solar tracker and less solar panels where space and planning
permit.
Project Description:
Schemati
c Diagram:
Trackers use motors and gear trains to direct the tracker as commanded by a controller
responding to the solar direction. Since the motors consume energy, one wants to use them
only as necessary.
Single axis trackers have one degree of freedom that acts as an axis of rotation. There are
several common implementations of single axis trackers. These include horizontal single
axis trackers (HSAT) and vertical single axis trackers (VSAT).
A horizontal-axis tracker consists of a long horizontal tube to which solar modules are
attached. The tube is aligned in a north-south direction, is supported on bearings mounted on
pylons or frames, and rotates slowly on its axis to follow the sun's motion across the sky. This
kind of tracker is most effective at equatorial latitudes where the sun is more or less overhead
at noon. In general, it is effective wherever the solar path is high in the sky for substantial
parts of the year, but for this very reason, does not perform well at higher latitudes. For higher
latitude, a vertical-axis tracker is better suited. This works well wherever the sun is typically
lower in the sky and, at least in the summer months, the days are long.
TRACKER DESIGN:
A solar tracker is a device that orient photovoltaic array toward the sun. In flat-panel
photovoltaic (PV) applications trackers are used to minimize the angle of incidence between
the incoming light and a photovoltaic panel. This increases the amount of energy produced
by the photovoltaic array.
Here we can use azimuth-altitude dual axis trackers (AADAT). Dual axis trackers extract the
maximum solar energy levels due to their ability to follow the sun vertically and horizontally.
No matter where the sun is in the sky, dual axis trackers are able to angle themselves to be in
direction toward the sun.
The Fig. 3.1 shows a setup of a squared solar panel with two degrees of freedom. Here
Two DC motors are used to drive the two rotational degrees of freedom. The motors can
mounted directly on the rotation pins of the rotational joints to reduce losses caused by
linkages and joints and to avoid using more linkages and mechanisms.
DC Motors:
Figure shows the inner workings of a basic DC motor. The outside section of the motor is the
stator (stationary part), while the inside section is the rotor (rotating part).The stator is
comprised of two (or more) permanent magnet pole pairs, while the rotor is comprised of
windings that are connected to a mechanical commutator. The opposite polarities of the
energized winding and the stator magnet attract each other. When this occurs the rotor will
rotate until perfect alignment with the stator is achieved. When the rotor reaches alignment,
the brushes move across the commutator contacts (middle section of rotor) and energies the
next winding.
There are two other types of DC motors: series wound and shunt wound. These motors also use
a similar rotor with brushes and a commutator. However, the stator uses windings instead of
permanent magnets. The basic principle is still the same. A series wound DC motor has the
stator windings in series with the rotor. A shunt wound DC motor has the stator windings in
parallel with the rotor winding.
DC Servomotors:
By itself the standard DC motor is not an acceptable method of controlling a sun tracking
array. This is due to the fact that DC motors are free spinning and subsequently difficult to
position accurately. Even if the timing for starting and
stopping the motor is correctly achieved, the armature does not stop immediately. DC motors
have a very gradual acceleration and deceleration curves, therefore stabilization is slow.
Adding gearing to the motor will help to reduce this problem, but overshoot is still present
and will throw off the anticipated stop position.
The only way to effectively use a DC motor for precise positioning is to use a servo.
The servomotor is actually an assembly of four things: a normal DC motor, a gear reduction
unit, a position-sensing device (usually a potentiometer), and a control circuit. The function of
the servo is to receive a control signal that represents a
desired output position of the servo shaft, and apply power to its DC motor until its shaft turns
to that position. It uses the position-sensing device to determine the rotational position of the
shaft, so it knows which way the motor must turn to move the shaft to the command position.
The solar panel that attached to the motor will be reacted according to the direction of the
motor.
SENSORS:
We are using Five Light Dependent Resistors as a sensor. They sense the higher density area
of sun light. The solar panel moves to the high light density area through servo motors.
Each LDR is connected to power supply forming a potential devider. Thus any change in light
density is proportional to the change in voltage across the LDRs.
LDR is a passive transducer hence we will use potential divider circuit to obtain corresponding
voltage value from the resistance of LDR.
LDRs resistance is inversely proportional to the intensity of light falling on it i.e. Higher the
intensity or brightness of light the Lower the resistance and vice versa. Interfaces.
Input(ADC):
Arduino has an inbuilt 10-bit Analog to Digital converter(ADC), hence it can provide Digital
values from 0-1023.(since 2^10=1024). We can also set the ADC reference voltage in arduino,
but here well let it use default value. LDRs has two pins, and to get voltage value from it we
use potential divider circuit. In potential divider we get Vout corresponding to resistance of
LDR which in turn is a function of Light falling on LDR. The higher the intensity of light, lower
the LDR resistance and hence lower the Output voltage (Vout) And lower the light intensity,
higher the LDR resistance and hence higher the Vout.
Output(PWM):
Arduino has a 8-bit PWM generator, so we can get up to 256 distinct PWM signal. To drive a
servo we need to get a PWM signal from the board, this is usually accomplished using timer
function of the microcontroller but arduino makes it very easy. Arduino provides a servo
library in which we have to only assign servo angle (0-1800) and the servo rotates by that
angle, all the PWM calculations are handled by the servo library and we get a neat
MICRO CONTROLLER:
The ATMEGA-168 is a modified
Harvard
chip
microcontroller which was developed by Atmel. It uses on-chip flash memory for program
storage, as
Features: Flash
16KB
EEPROM
1024B
SRAM
512B
Clock freq.
upto 20MHz
Supply voltage
2.8-5.5v
Ext. Interrupt
24
PWM
Pin descriptions:
VCC
Digital supply voltage
GND
Ground
Port C (PC5:0)
Port C is a 7-bit bi-directional I/O port with internal pull-up resistors (selected for
each bit). The PC5..0 output buffers have symmetrical drive characteristics with both
high sink and source capability. As inputs, Port C pins that are externally pulled low
will source current if the pull-up resistors are activated. The Port C pins are tri-stated
when a reset condition becomes active, even if the clock is not running.
PC6/RESET
If the RSTDISBL Fuse is programmed, PC6 is used as an I/O pin. Note that the
electrical characteristics of PC6 differ from those of the other pins of Port C. If the
RSTDISBL Fuse is unprogrammed, PC6 is used as a Reset input. A low level on this
pin for longer than the minimum pulse length will generate a Reset, even if the clock is
not running.
Port D (PD7:0)
are externally pulled low will source current if the pull-up resistors are
activated. The Port D pins are tri-stated when a reset condition becomes active,
even if the clock is not running.
AVCC
AVCC is the supply voltage pin for the A/D Converter, PC3:0, and ADC7:6. It should be
externally connected to VCC, even if the ADC is not used. If the ADC is used, it should be
connected to VCC through a low-pass filter. Note that PC6.4 use digital supply voltage,
VCC.
AREF
AREF is the analog reference pin for the A/D Converter.
CONCLUSION
From the design of experimental set up with Micro Controller Based Solar
Tracking System Using Stepper Motor If we compare Tracking by the use of
LDR with Fixed Solar Panel System we found that the efficiency of Micro
Controller Based Solar Tracking System is improved by 30-45% and it was
found that all the parts of the experimental setup are giving good results. The
required Power is used to run the motor by using Step-Down T/F by using
220V AC. Moreover, this tracking system does track the sun in a continuous
manner. And this system is more efficient and cost effective in long run. From
the results it is found that, by automatic tracking system, there is 30 % gain in
increase of efficiency when compared with non-tracking system. The solar
tracker can be still enhanced additional features like rain protection and wind
protection which can be done as future work.
REFERENCES
[1] Rizk J. and Chaiko Y. Solar Tracking System: More Efficient Use of Solar
Panels, World Academy of
2008.
[2] Filfil Ahmed Nasir, Mohussen Deia Halboot, Dr. Zidan Khamis A.
Microcontroller-Based Sun Path Tracking System, Eng. & Tech. Journal,
Vol. 29, No.7, 2011.
[3] Alimazidi Mohammad, Gillispie J, Mazidi, Rolin D. McKinlay, The 8051
Microcontroller and Embedded Systems, An imprint of Pearson Education.
Bachelor of
Technology
in
Electrical Engineering
by
Ashutosh Mohanty(120101022)
Subham Hazra(120101077)
Sourav Kumar Dey(120101074)
Joydeep Sarkar(120101034)
Suprakash Ghosh
Anasua Das(120101009)
Puja Roy(120101050)
Neha Das(120101044)
to the
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ABSTRACT