IJSTE - International Journal of Science Technology & Engineering | Volume 2 | Issue 11 | May 2016

ISSN (online): 2349-784X

Solar Tracking System using Delta PLC

L. Umasankar
Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering
RMK College of Engineering & Technology, Anna University
Chennai-25

N.S Elanthiraiyan
AE/EM CHP divisions
North Chennai Thermal Power Plant

N. Hariharan
Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering
RMK College of Engineering & Technology, Anna University
Chennai-25

Dr. N. Kalaiarasi
Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering
RMK College of Engineering & Technology, Anna University
Chennai-25

Abstract
The main objective of this project is to achieve the maximum power output from the solar panel or the photovoltaic panel. In
general, the Suns Path is from East to West but the Suns position changes from season to season. Keeping this in mind we have
designed a system which rotates in three dimensions so as to trap maximum amount of photons from the Sun rays. The photovoltaic
panel converts the solar energy (photons) into Electrical energy. By doing this the output efficiency of the system is increased
compared to the efficiency of single axis tracking system. The overall project is controlled by PLC (Programmable Logic
Controller) and the LDR values, rotation of panels is monitored through the Wonder Ware In touch Software installed in Personal
Computer.
Keywords: Solar tracking, Delta PLC, LDR
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I.

INTRODUCTION

To prevent the effects related to global warming, which is caused by the greenhouse gases emission, the renewable energy has
been the best substitution strategy. About 40 minutes of solar radiation on the earth would provide enough power to meet the
energy demands of all human beings for approximately one year. The generation capability of PV panel follows the intensity of
the sunlight.
At present a lot of solar panel arrays are basically been fixed and cannot make use of solar energy resources, so power generation
efficiency is lower. If vertical direction can always be kept between solar panels and light, in order to maximise the solar energy
received, which can take full advantage of abundant solar energy resources.
The position of the sun with respect to any location of the earth changes in a cyclic track during the course of a calendar year.
Tracking the position of the sun in order to expose a PV panel to maximum radiation at any given time and any location is the aim
of an automatic solar tracking system. A prototype of the automatic multi-axis solar tracking system with a new designed sunposition tracker mechanism and wireless supervisory and control system was designed and implemented in this paper. The sunposition tracker mechanism was made of the PLC, DC motors, stepper motor, LDR-sensors, and power relays. With this setup we
increase the efficiency of the tracking system,
II. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
Several components to get desired output from the solar panel. PLC is one of the main modules of our project because the total
controlling mechanism of the panel is done using ladder logic which is called programmable logic controller.

All rights reserved by www.ijste.org

452

Solar Tracking System using Delta PLC

(IJSTE/ Volume 2 / Issue 11 / 081)

Fig. 1: Block Diagram of Solar tracking system

Already the ladder logic is installed in the PLC. In order to activate the PLC, 5V DC supply is given. The LDR placed in solar
panel gives the input values to PLC. The PLC processes the input values based on ladder logic programmed in it. The output from
the PLC is given to the stepper motor and DC motor. Meanwhile, the DC motor and stepper motor is excited by 12V DC supply.
The PLC works with respect to the ladder logic sequence. It will send the signal through output terminal and rotates the solar panel
with respect to the LDRs value. LDR values will decide in which direction the solar panel has to rotate.

Fig. 2: Light Dependent Resistor

Thus we store the energy received in a battery and then use during demand arises.
III. SOLAR TRACKER SYSTEMATIZATION
This is a power generating method from sun light. This method of power generation is simple and is taken from the natural resource.
This needs only the maximum sunlight to generate power. This project helps for power generation by fixing the equipment to track
maximum sunlight automatically. This system is tracking for maximum intensity of light. When the intensity of light decreases,
this system automatically changes its direction to get maximum intensity of light. Here we use two sensors in the two directions to
sense the direction of maximum intensity of light. The difference between the outputs of the sensors is given to the PLC unit. Here
we are using the PLC for tracking and generating the power from sunlight. It will process the input voltage from the comparison
circuit and control the direction in which motor is to be rotated so that it will receive maximum intensity of light from the sun. The
power generated in this process is then stored in a lead acid battery and is made to charge an emergency light and is made to glow
during night.

All rights reserved by www.ijste.org

453

Solar Tracking System using Delta PLC

(IJSTE/ Volume 2 / Issue 11 / 081)

Fig. 3: Working of solar tracking system

When there is decrease in intensity of light, this system automatically changes its direction to get the maximum intensity of
light. Here we are using two sensors in two different directions to sense the direction of the maximum intensity of light. The
difference between the outputs of the sensors is given to the PLC unit. Here we are using the PLC for tracking and generating
power from sunlight. It will process the input voltage, which is from the comparison circuit and control the direction in which the
motor has to be rotated so that it receives the maximum intensity of light from the sun. The power generated from this process is
then stored in the lead acid battery and is used to charge an emergency light and is made to glow during night.
Trackers classification by the tracking principle
There are many approaches in PV panel orientation towards the Sun position. They can be divided into three types.
Open-loop trackers determine the position of the Sunfor a specific location and time by using special mathematical
formulas [13]. Such systems are insensitive to the side illumination and problems with determination the exact position
of the Sun when it's cloudy. However, these trackers must be periodically calibrated. In addition, it is necessary to use
expensive actuators with position feedback.
Closed-loop trackers provide orientation of the panel due to a feedback signal from the sensor. The advantage of this
system is the ability to use virtually any actuators, insensitivity to placement errors and ability to function even in
transportable units (no need for the precise placement by the cardinal directions after transportation).
Hybrid trackers have the Sun position sensor, which is used to precisely adjust orientation in some region near the
calculated position. During sunny weather system can be controlled by the signals from the sensors, while in cloudy sky
the orientation that are calculated by program can be used. Hybrid systems can provide the highest precision in orientation.
They are widely used in concentrator PV which requires lowest orientation tolerance.
IV. SYSTEM REALIZATION AND EXPERIMENTATION
The auto-tracking control system based on the solar cell panels was composed by PLC, sensors and signal processing units,
photovoltaic modules, electromagnetic and the mechanical motion control modules and power supply modules. It is used to detect
the sunlight strength to the photosensitive detecting heads (sensors) of the solar PV generation power equipment in auto-tracking
system. When the straggling parameter occurred, PLC control unit(microcontroller) followed straggling parameter signal through
comparing with the differential voltage analog variable and carried out the operations, comparison and issued instructions, in order
that the electric actuator operated, in which the rotation-driven mechanical device drove the entire device rotation, and then adjusted
straggling parameter in order to ensure that the PV panels are perpendicular to the sunlight to sunlight track automatically. Solar
cell square arrays under the sunlight radiation generate the photovoltaic power, and charge to battery through the controller.

All rights reserved by www.ijste.org

454

Solar Tracking System using Delta PLC

(IJSTE/ Volume 2 / Issue 11 / 081)

Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) Unit

Tracking controller is used to be a programmable logic controller (PLC), it is a system core of the tracking system of the PV panel,
at the same time, is the focus of research system. Specially, there are the advantages of the centralized control through the PLC
fieldbus to the tracking system of the PV batteries arrays of the series-parallel connection of the synchronization network. After
researching and optimizing the design, the tracking controller has the advantages of the high tracking accuracy, wide operating
range and it returns automatically through comparing with the differential voltage analog variable.
The devices were ensured work reliably after using the dual limit control structure, that is, control signals limit and motor drive
limit
Sensors Detecting and Signal Processing Unit
With the different observation location and the observation time, sunlight direction is different, therefore, suns position has to be
tested and located first if sunlight needs be tracked. We use Light dependent resistors (LDR) to track the sun effectively. The
analog signals from LDRs are fed into PLC and the processing unit converts the analog signal into digital signal. Depending upon
the speed of the processors the accuracy is maintained. Tracking is done with some time delay in between the position changes.
The advantages of relative method of sunlight strength to photo resistance lied in accurate control and circuit design to achieve
easily.
System Power Module
Power circuit uses the switching power design with characteristics of high efficiency, low loss. The chip L4960 is used to switch
could provide a 5.1~40V output voltage and a 2.5A output current. Through adjusting resistance, which produced 12~24V DC
voltage, 24V (DC) for PLC power, 44V (DC) is output directly from the bridge rectifier in order to provide to DC motor. If the
inverter for the photovoltaic systems tracking system was used, 220V (AC) could be taken directly from the photovoltaic inverter
power.

Fig. 4: Power Supply Unit

PLC control and monitoring programs

The PLC control statements were the important constituent of the entire solar panel tracking system, and the software programming
was done using ladder logic coding and was written in CPU module of the PLC and then processed and executed.
The PLC was monitored data in real-time, was modified edited on-line, and so on, and the programs were transferred to the PLC
and the data were read from the PLC conveniently.
PLC completed the following major tasks:
1) PLC controls the movement in tracking system, and control logic.
2) The function of ladder logic is to copy states of the PLC input and output to the specific memory, known as mark region,
and the PC monitoring programs could read directly status of input and output from the memory at any time.

All rights reserved by www.ijste.org

455

Solar Tracking System using Delta PLC

(IJSTE/ Volume 2 / Issue 11 / 081)

Fig. 5: Flow Diagram of tracking system

3) The mandatory forward and the backward movements of modulars. Through program interface, the instruction was issued
to control PLC. If the system location appears abnormal, solar panels could be forced towards recovery initial state in
accordance with the operation requirements.

All rights reserved by www.ijste.org

456

Solar Tracking System using Delta PLC

(IJSTE/ Volume 2 / Issue 11 / 081)

V. HARDWARE SETUP
The below figure shows the hardware setup of the solar tracking system and the components used for tracking

Thus the stepper motor is used to rotate the panel in East or West direction whereas the DC motor is used to rotate the panel in
three dimensional axis. The voltage regulator circuit will regulate the voltage and the received solar energy gets stored in the
battery.
VI. CONCLUSION
Based on DELTA PLC, the study and used relative method of sunlight strength to photo resistance and established a model of
automatic tracking system to keep perpendicular between solar panels and sunlight. The system could be used not only for
independent photovoltaic power generation, but also applied to the series and parallel network in the grid-connected PV power
generation (field bus controlling). It improved the utilization rate of solar energy and the efficiency of photovoltaic power
generation system in order to study the system of solar panels tracking sunlight automatically, and it has increased the output power
of power generation yearly, and has reduced costs of the grid-connected PV power generation in overall, and meets the developing
demand of building environment-friendly and energy-saving social with higher economic returns and the better social impact, thus
have the research meanings in theory and promotion prospects in application.

All rights reserved by www.ijste.org

457

Solar Tracking System using Delta PLC

(IJSTE/ Volume 2 / Issue 11 / 081)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We are very much thankful to Mr. N.S Elanthiraiyan, AE/EM CHP division, North Chennai Thermal Power Plant, Chennai-120,
for his extended support and help throughout this project. We are indeed thankful to our college and our staffs for providing us all
the facility to complete our project successfully.
REFERENCES
T. Esram and P. L. Chapman, Comparison of Photovoltaic Array Maximum Power Point Tracking Techniques, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion,
vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 439449, Jun. 2007.
[2] C.Roncero-Clemente, O. Husev, V. Minambres-Marcos, E. Romero-Cadaval, S. Stepenko and D. Vinnikov, Tracking of MPP for three-level neutral-pointclamped QZ-source off-grid inverter in solar applications, Journal of Microelectronics, Electronic Components and Materials, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 212 221,
2013.
[3] O.Veligorskyi and Y.Vagapov, Improvement of perturb and observe MPPT method for photovoltaic systems: case of study, International Journal of
Renewable Energy Technology, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 141156, 2013.
[4] E. Lorenzo, M. Perez, A. Ezpeleta, and J. Acedo, Design of tracking photovoltaic systems with a single vertical axis, Progress in Photovoltaics Research
and Applications, vol. 10, no. 8, pp. 533543, Dec. 2002.
[5] K. Chong and C. Wong, General formula for on-axis sun-tracking system and its application in improving tracking accuracy of solar collector, Solar Energy,
vol. 83, no. 3, pp. 298305, March 2009.
[6] . Sefa, M. Demirtas, and . olak, Application of one-axis Sun tracking system, Energy Conversation and Management, vol. 50, no. 11, pp. 27092718,
Nov. 2009.
[7] A. enpinar and M. Cebeci, Evaluation of power output for fixed and two-axis tracking PV-arrays, Applied Energy, vol. 92, pp. 677685, Apr. 2012.
[8] M. Alata, M. a. Al-Nimr, and Y. Qaroush, Developing a Multipurpose Sun tracking system using fuzzy control, Energy Conversation and Management,
vol. 46, no. 78, pp. 1229 1245, May 2005.
[9] R. Grena, Five new algorithms for the computation of Sun Position from 2010 to 2110, Solar Energy, vol. 86, no. 5, pp. 13231337, May 2012.
[10] H. Mousazadeh, A. Keyhani, A. Javadi, H. Mobli, K. Abrinia, and A. Sharifi, A review of principle and Sun-tracking methods for maximizing solar systems
output, Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 13, no. 8, pp. 18001818, Oct. 2009.
[1]

All rights reserved by www.ijste.org

458