Author(s):
Shovan Kar¹, Sanghamitra Layek¹, Santana Das¹

Author Affiliation:
¹Department of Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering, Guru Nanak Institute of Technology, Kolkata-700114, India

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Renewable energy solutions are becoming increasingly popular. Photovoltaic (solar) systems are but one example. Maximizing power output from a solar system is desirable to increase efficiency. In order to maximize power output from solar panels, one needs to keep the panels aligned with the sun. As such, a means of tracking the sun is required. This is definitely a more cost effective solution than purchasing additional solar panels. It has been estimated that the yield from solar panels can be increased by 30 to 60 percent by utilizing a tracking system instead of a stationary array. The solar panel perpendicular to the sun throughout the year is more efficient. In this paper, a new micro-controller based solar-tracking system is proposed, implemented and tested. Here the dual axis solar panel takes astronomical data as reference and the tracking system has the capability to always point the solar array toward the sun and can be installed in various regions with minor modifications. The vertical and horizontal motion of the panel is obtained by taking altitude angle and azimuth angle as reference. The micro – controller has been used to control the position of DC motors. The mathematical simulation control of dual axis Photovoltaic solar tracking system ensures the point to point motion of the DC motors.

KEYWORDS:
Solar panel; LDR; microcontroller; stepper motor; dual beam tracker