A novel Sun tracking technique through

a Solar PV Tree and a smart controller

Farhan Hyder Prashant Baredar K. Sudhakar
Energy Centre Energy Centre Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Maulana Azad National Institute of Maulana Azad National Institute of Universiti Malaysia Pahang
Technology Technology Pahang, Malaysia
Bhopal, India Bhopal, India sudhakar@ump.edu.my
farhanhyderofficial@gmail.com prashant.baredar@gmail.com

Abstract— Climate change due to global warming and ozone
layer depletion have prompted the world to focus its attention
towards renewable energy and sustainable development. This
have resulted in solar PV systems being considered as a
promising source of energy owing to its direct conversion of
Sunlight into electricity, ease of use and clean energy production.
However, the flat panel land based PV systems consumes large
amounts of useful land. A solar PV Tree only uses a fraction of
that land for the same amount of energy generation. It is also
more effective in Sunlight capture than a land based system. This
paper presents the concept of a solar PV tree, its components,
working and features. The article also discusses the inherent
drawbacks of this technique and suggests a method to overcome
them. Finally, the concept of Sun tracking through a solar PV
tree with the help of a smart controller is explained.
Keywords—Solar PV tree (SPT); Solar PV system (SPV);Sun
tracking; Smart controller (SC); No moving parts;
I. INTRODUCTION
Solar energy generation through the photovoltaic route has
been identified as the renewable energy source that can
compete with fossil fuel based conventional sources of
energy[1]–[4]. The solar PV technology is mature enough for
commercial use and does not involve any raw material
procurement costs at the time of its operation, which makes it a
highly attractive alternative for large scale electrification[4]–
[7]. Despite its numerous merits, PV technology suffers from
poor conversion efficiency and consequent need for large areas
of useful land to meet energy demands[8]–[10]. Solar PV tree
is a PV system level technique, which consists of panels
arranged on a metal structure (like leaves of a tree) instead of
being laid out in the form of an array[11]–[13]. This tree like
orientation of panels reduces the burden of huge land
requirement in PV systems[14]–[17]. However, the random
orientation of panels results in each panel producing different
amount of power at any particular instant during the day,
resulting in inverter losses. Hence this makes the solar PV tree
unsuitable for grid synchronization. It also makes MPP
tracking very challenging. Such drawbacks have limited the
use of solar PV tree to small scale stand-alone applications like
battery charging and street lighting.
In this article, a novel technique to overcome these
drawbacks is presented and discussed with the help of flow
charts and algorithms. This paper only presents the concept and
doesn’t simulate the idea and validate performance, hence
results aren’t included in this article. The use of a smart
controller is suggested to manage the power outputs of
different panels of the tree. A solar PV tree in conjuncture with
a smart controller can function a Sun tracker without any
moving parts.
II. CONCEPT OF SOLAR PV TREE
A. Components and working of solar PV tree
The solar PV tree takes a tree like appearance by
arrangement of PV panels like leaves on a metallic structure.
It’s just like a tree, but with a steel body and silicon leaves. It
aims to capture Sunlight from every direction during the day
while consuming less area of land[18], [19]. Fig.1 shows the
main components of a solar PV tree. It consists of PV modules
which convert incoming Sunlight into electricity. This energy
is transferred to the battery by wires running through the
branches of the tree. The stored energy can be used to charge
street lights, small gadgets like laptops and mobiles, etc.[11],
[14], [16], [20]. The major objectives of a solar PV tree (SPT)
are as follows-
• To reduce land requirement for a PV system
• To enhance sunlight capture with the help of a 3D
structure
• To improve public acceptability and perception of
solar PV technology
• To raise awareness among citizens about renewable
energy and sustainable development
B. Drawbacks of solar PV tree
In a solar PV tree (SPT), unlike a land based PV array
(SPV), all the panels don’t produce the same amount of power
at an instant of time. This is due to the fact that, panels in a
SPT are oriented at different angles to cover the Sun path of the
location, hence every panel receives different amount of
Sunlight. Solar PV inverters are designed to operate at a fixed
voltage and power. This varying nature of output power from a
SPT leads to power losses in the inverter, making grid
integration unfeasible. The unstable power output also makes

978-1-5386-3695-4$31.00 2018
c IEEE 407
the tracking of maximum power point (MPP) very difficult.
These 2 drawbacks limit the solar PV tree to small scale
domestic applications only.
Other drawbacks include complicated design and higher
cost due to an aesthetically pleasing steel structure for panels
and shading effect dues to random orientation of panels.
However, this paper aims to tackle the first two drawbacks
only, with the help of a smart controller.
Fig.1. Components of SPT [11]
III. PROPOSED SOLAR PV TREE MODEL
The aim of a solar PV tree (SPT) is to collect Sunlight
coming from different directions throughout the day. However,
solar PV panels perform better with direct beam radiation, so
the proposed model is designed to cover the Sun path of a
location, i.e. track the Sun. A semi-dome design is adopted for
the SPT model. Fig.2. describes the side view of the model,
showing the changes in tilt angle to track Sun throughout the
year. Fig.3. describes the top view of the model, showing the
changes in orientation angle to track the Sun throughout the
day.
408 4th International Conference on Electrical Energy Systems (ICEES)
Fig.2 (a). Side view of model showing change in tilt angle
Fig.2 (b). Side view of model showing change in tilt angle
The tilt angle is varied from 0-46°, as the declination of any
location on earth varies from -23.45° to +23.45°. The
orientation angle is varied with the hour angle (changes by 15°
per hour) along east-west directions, in order to cover the peak
sunshine hours of the location. The panel in the center of the
structure is positioned facing south, at the latitude angle of the
location, and the other panels are angled around this central
panel so as to achieve a semi-dome structure. The panels are
arranged in layers, starting from one panel in the first layer and
increasing by 2 additional panels in every next layer. For
example, a 5 layer solar PV tree structure will consist of 25
panels, starting with 1 panel in the first layer and increasing to
9 in the fifth layer. The following equation describes the
relation between number of panels per layer and number of
layers.
NPi = NP(i-1) + 2, , where i = 2, 3, 4…’ (1)
Here, i = Serial number of the layer, NP = Number of Panels in
a particular layer
A 4 layer design is chosen for this study which tracks the Sun
from 9am to 3pm. It consists of 16 panels with 7 in the last
layer. Fig.4 shows the SPT model to be used for analysis in this
study.
Fig.4. Proposed solar PV tree model
IV. SOLAR TRACKING WITH SMART CONTROLLER
A. Concept and block diagram
Solar PV tree captures solar radiation throughout the day
and around the year owing to its semi-dome design which
covers the Sun’s path. However, while some panels of the SPT
will face the Sun directly at any instant of the day, other panels
won’t receive the direct radiation. For example, when the Sun
is at the zenith, the central panels will get direct beam
radiation, and the panels on the sides would only get diffused
radiation; similarly at morning hours, the panels facing south-
east will produce more power than the panels facing south-
west. Hence, the power produced by the panels is expected to
be different with respect to each other. The idea is to use a
smart controller to manage the outputs of the panels and ensure
consistent power supply to the inverter. Fig.5. shows the block
diagram of the proposed idea. Sunlight gets converted into
electricity by the photovoltaic panels and the smart controller
(SC) monitors the output of each panel. The next function of
the SC is to select the panels producing power above a certain
threshold to be connected directly with the MPPT converter
and inverter, and the power output of the remaining panels is
sent to the battery bank for charging. The MPPT converter
extracts maximum power out of the PV system and it is then
sent to the inverter. The DC electricity produced by PV panels
is converted into AC electricity by the inverter before grid
integration. Hence, in this way the solar PV tree can be
connected to grid with the help of a smart controller. Since the
SC selects the PV panels producing higher power at all instants
of time during the day, it simulates the action of a solar tracker.
4th International Conference on Electrical Energy Systems (ICEES)
At night and when direct solar radiation isn’t available, the
energy stored inside the battery can be used to supply the grid.
Fig.5. Block diagram of smart controller integrated with the
solar PV tree
B. Flow chart of operation
The smart controller monitors the output power of every
panel of the solar PV tree. It compares the power output of
every panel with the threshold power and decides whether to
send that power to grid or battery as shown in fig. 6. The
output power of the ith solar panel of SPT is measured and SC
compares it with threshold power PT, if it is higher than PT then
the power generated by that panel is sent to the MPPT
converter and subsequently to the inverter before being
supplied to the electrical grid. If it is lower than the threshold
then it is sent to the battery bank for charging purposes.
However, on cloudy days and at night, when none of the
panels are producing power above the threshold, the SC
decides to cut off the MPPT converter and Inverter set and
supply the energy stored energy in battery bank to the grid as
shown in fig. 7. As soon as SC notices that the total power
output P of the SPT is lesser than the min power to be
transferred to grid Pmin, it decides to supply power from the
battery bank. In this way the smart controller maintains
constant supply of power to the converter-inverter set and
makes SPT suitable for grid integration.
409
 C. Algorithm for implementation of concept logic
The next step after the design of flowchart is to design a
step by step algorithm for the implementation of the
concept of a smart controller being integrated with a solar
PV tree. The steps of the algorithm are discussed below.
Step 1: Measure Pi and P.
Step 2: If P>Pmin
Supply power to MPPT converter & inverter set
Else
Supply power to battery bank
Step 3: If Pi > PT
Supply power to MPPT converter & inverter set
Else
Supply power to battery bank
Step 4:Supply power to the grid from converter-inverter
set or battery bank based on step 2 & 3.
Step 5: Go back to step 1.

This step by step algorithm can be converted into code and

D. Circuit diagram of the system
Fig. 6. Flowchart of smart controller operation on each panel
dumped into the smart controller for the implementation of
the concept’s logic.
The electrical circuit of the system mainly consists of the
smart controller (SC), the MPPT converter and Inverter.
Fig. 8 shows the circuit diagram of the system with 2
panels only for simplicity of understanding. Each panel is
connected with a parallel capacitor to filter out small
output voltage variations of the PV panels, each panel is
individually connected to the controller, so that they can be
operated independently by the SC. The output of the SC is
then connected to the boost converter for MPPT operation
and its output is sent to the bridge inverter for DC to AC
conversion and finally the output of the inverter is fed to
the grid.
In this way the concept of this study can help in grid
integration of solar PV tree and can enhance its usability to
higher power applications.

Fig. 7. Flowchart of smart controller operation on the entire

SPT
Fig. 8. Circuit diagram of the system

410 4th International Conference on Electrical Energy Systems (ICEES)

 V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE
The integration of smart controller to manage the power
output of a solar PV tree helps to overcome its drawbacks. It
also simulates a Sun tracking operation without the need of
sensors, actuators and motors. The novel technique of solar
tracking with the help of a solar PV tree and smart controller
can be simulated using MATLAB or suitable software. After
its performance is analyzed using a software, it can be
implemented using a micro-controller and other suitable
integrated circuits. It promises to be beneficial in improving
the performance of solar PV systems.
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